Everything about Rafael Benitez totally explained
| cityofbirth =
Madrid
| countryofbirth =
Spain
| nickname = Rafa
| height =
| position =
Midfielder (retired)
| currentclub =
Liverpool (manager)
| youthclubs =
Real Madrid Aficionados
| youthyears = 197x–1974
| years = 1974–1981
1981–1985
1985–1986
| clubs =
Castilla CF AD ParlaCD Linares
| caps(goals) =
| nationalyears = 1979–1981
| nationalteam = Spain Universities XI
| nationalcaps(goals) = 5 (X)
| manageryears = 1986–1989
1989–1991
1991–1993
1993–1995
1995–1996
1996–1997
1997–1999
2000–2001
2001–2004
2004–
| managerclubs =
Castilla Youth BReal Madrid Youth B Real Madrid U-19sReal Madrid BReal Valladolid CA OsasunaCF Extremadura CD Tenerife Valencia CF Liverpool
| pcupdate =
| ntupdate =
}}
Rafael "
Rafa"
Benítez (born
April 16 1960) is a
Spanish former
footballer and current
manager. He has managed
English club
Liverpool since June 2004. He has previously managed
Valencia CF and five other
La Liga teams. Benítez became the most successful Valencia CF manager in their history after just three seasons in charge. In 2002, he led the club to their first
La Liga title since 1971, and in 2004 he led the club to a
La Liga/
UEFA Cup double. In 2005 he guided Liverpool to victory in the
UEFA Champions League and the
European Super Cup and in 2006 he led them to victory in the
FA Cup and the
FA Community Shield.
Benítez became only the third manager, after
Bob Paisley and
José Mourinho, to win the
UEFA Cup and
UEFA Champions League in successive seasons. He is also the first manager to achieve this with two different clubs. He became the second Liverpool manager, after
Joe Fagan, to win the European Cup/UEFA Champions League in his first season in charge. Throughout his career Benítez has also won several individual awards. He was awarded
Manager of the Year titles by both
Don Balón and
El País in 2002 while at
Valencia CF and was named
Madrid Coach of the Year for 2005 by Seven Stars Sport.
Personal life
Rafael Benítez Maudes was born on
April 16 1960, into a
middle-class Madrid family. His father, Francisco Benítez, worked as a hotelier. His mother is Rosario Maudes. Rosario was a big football fan and supported
Real Madrid, while his father supported
Atletico Madrid. Francisco died in December 2005 while Benítez was in
Japan for the
FIFA Club World Championship. He is the second of three children. His older brother, also called Francisco, was born in 1959, while his younger sister, called Rosario, was born several years later. Both studied veterinary science and Rosario later became a vet. In 1998, Benítez married his wife, Maria de Montserrat, a Doctor of Law, born in
Ourense. They have two daughters, Claudia, who was born in
Madrid in 1999, and Ágata who was born in
Valencia in 2002 .
Early career
Playing career
The young Benitez attended several schools throughout Madrid and played for various school teams. Among his school friends and team mates was
Ricardo Gallego. He also showed his early potential as a coach when at the age of thirteen he began training a children’s football team. At the age of twelve Benítez joined the
Real Madrid cantera. He progressed through the ranks, playing as a midfielder for both
Real Madrid Aficionados in the
Tercera División and
Castilla CF, in the
Segunda División. He also enrolled as a student at INEF, the sports faculty at the
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and in 1982 he obtained a degree in Physical Education.
In 1979 Benítez was selected to play for the Spain Universities XI at the
World Student Games in
Mexico City and he scored a penalty in the opening game, a 4–0 win against Cuba. In the next game, a 0–0 draw against Canada, he was injured following a hard tackle. The injury saw him sidelined for a year which realistically ended his chances of becoming a major player. In 1981 Benítez joined
Tercera División side
AD Parla. Initially he joined Parla on loan, but eventually signed for them permanently and helped them gain promotion to
Segunda División B. He also played a further three games for the Spain Universities XI. In 1985 he signed for
Segunda División B club
Linares CF and under
Enrique Mateos he served as a player/coach. Further injury problems saw him miss almost the entire 1985–86 season and he subsequently retired as a player..
Real Madrid youth coach
In 1986, at the age of twenty six, Benítez returned to
Real Madrid and joined the club’s coaching staff. At the start of the 1986-87 season he was appointed coach of
Castilla B. With this team he won two league titles in 1987 and 1989. He won a third league title with
Real Madrid Youth B in 1990. Halfway through the 1990-91 season he succeeded
José Antonio Camacho as the coach of the
Real Madrid U-19s. With this team he won the
Spain U-19 Cup in 1991 and 1993, beating
FC Barcelona in both finals. In 1993 the team completed a double when they also won the
national U-19 league. While at Real, Benítez also gained his coaching certificate in 1989 and in the summer of 1990 he taught at a football camp at
UC Davis in
California.
During the 1992-93 season Benítez also worked as an assistant coach to
Mariano García Remón at
Real Madrid B. After his success with the U-19s, Benítez then succeeded García Remón at the start of the 1993-94 season. Real Madrid B were then playing in the
Segunda División and on September 4 1993 he made his debut as a Segunda División manager with a 3-1 over
Hércules CF. In March 1994 he became assistant manager to
Vicente Del Bosque with the senior
Real Madrid team before returning to coach Real Madrid B for the 1994-95 season..
Promotion specialist
The first attempts by Benítez at senior management away from the
Real Madrid fold were less than successful. He was appointed manager of
Real Valladolid for the 1995–96 season but was sacked after only two wins in 23 games with the club bottom of the
Primera División. During the 1996–97 season, Benítez took charge at
CA Osasuna in the
Segunda División but after only 9 games and one win he was sacked. In 1997, he joined another Segunda División side,
CF Extremadura and this time led them to promotion, finishing second in the table behind
Deportivo Alavés, after winning 23 out of 42 games. CF Extremadura only survived one season in Primera División, however, and were relegated in 1999 after finishing seventeenth and losing a play-off to
Villarreal CF.
Benítez subsequently quit CF Extremadura and took a year out studying in
England and
Italy. He also worked as a commentator/analyst for
Eurosport,
Marca,
El Mundo and local Madrid TV.In 2000 he was appointed manager of
CD Tenerife of the Segunda División and with a team that included
Mista,
Curro Torres and
Luis García,he gained promotion to
La Liga by finishing third in the league behind
Sevilla FC and
Real Betis.
Valencia CF
2001–02 - Champions of Spain
In 2001 Benítez was appointed coach of
Valencia CF, replacing
Hector Cuper. The club had previously approached
Javier Irureta,
Mané and
Luis Aragonés and had been turned down by all three. However the club director Javier Subirats recognised the potential of Benítez and campaigned for his appointment. Despite the loss of both
Gaizka Mendieta and
Claudio López, he inherited from Cuper a team brimming with potential.
Santiago Cañizares,
Roberto Ayala,
Rubén Baraja,
David Albelda and
Pablo Aimar provided the backbone of an already formidable but underachieving side.
Valencia CF fans were soon won over by Benítez as he introduced a more attacking style of play. He also made good use of both
Mista and
Curro Torres and Mista went on to become top goalscorer for Valencia CF with 19 goals in the 2003–04 season and Curro Torres became an established international. In 2002,these tactics saw Benítez lead Valencia CF to their first
La Liga title in thirty one years, winning it by a seven point margin over second placed
Deportivo de La Coruña.
However the following season 2002–03 was a disappointing one as the club failed to follow up on their title success, they finished only fifth in La Liga, eighteen points behind Champions
Real Madrid. The season saw Benítez make his debut in the
UEFA Champions League. Valencia CF reached the quarter-finals before losing to
Inter Milan.
2003–04 - La Liga/UEFA Cup double
The 2003–04 season was a different story. Valencia CF won La Liga with three games to go and beat
Olympique de Marseille 2–0 in the
UEFA Cup final. Despite this success, Benítez fell out with Jesus Garcia Pitarch, the club's director of sport, over control of new signings and the club's failure to reinforce the squad with the players he wanted. These differences of opinion saw Benítez resign as Valencia CF coach in June 2004.
He famously said "I asked for a table and they bought me a lampshade" in reference to the players he wanted the club to sign.
Liverpool
2004–05 - Champions of Europe
Liverpool were quick to take advantage of the disharmony at Valencia CF and Benítez was appointed manager of the
English Premiership club on
June 16 2004, replacing
Gérard Houllier. Arriving at Liverpool, he found himself in a very similar position to the one he'd found at Valencia CF. The club had a talented but underperforming squad that included, among others,
Michael Owen,
Steven Gerrard,
Jamie Carragher,
Dietmar Hamann,
Harry Kewell,
Steve Finnan and
Sami Hyypiä.
Benítez had barely arrived at Liverpool when Michael Owen was sold to
Real Madrid. He subsequently signed several players from
La Liga, most notably
Luis García and
Xabi Alonso. During his first season Benítez failed to improve the club's form in the
Premiership. Key players such as
Steven Gerrard,
Milan Baroš,
Djibril Cissé,
Xabi Alonso and
Dietmar Hamann missed much of the season through injury and Liverpool failed to challenge
Chelsea and
Arsenal for the league title. They eventually finished fifth. However, they did reach the
Carling Cup final against Chelsea at the
Millennium Stadium but Liverpool lost 3–2 after extra time.
In the
UEFA Champions League it was very different, despite a poor start. Liverpool began their campaign with an unimpressive 2–1 aggregate win over
Grazer AK in the qualifying rounds and were minutes away from going out of the competition in the group stages before an 87th minute goal by Gerrard defeated
Olympiakos 3–1 and saw the club progress to the last sixteen.
Bayer Leverkusen were beaten 3–1 home and away followed by
Juventus who were beaten 2–1 on aggregate.
In the semi-final Liverpool faced Chelsea, runaway leaders in the
Premiership and favourites to win after overcoming the highly rated
FC Barcelona in a previous round. Chelsea had already beaten Liverpool in the
League Cup final and twice in the
Premiership. After a goalless leg at Stamford Bridge, an early goal from
Luis García saw Liverpool win 1–0 on aggregate and reach the final against
AC Milan. In a classic
final, Liverpool came from 3–0 down at half-time to level the score at 3–3 (in the space of just under 7 minutes) and eventually won on penalties with the assistance of
Jerzy Dudek, giving Liverpool an historic fifth European Cup.
2005–06 - FA Cup winners
For the 2005–06 season Benítez further reinforced the
Liverpool squad by signing
Peter Crouch,
Mohamed Sissoko,
José "Pepe" Reina,
Boudewijn Zenden and
Daniel Agger, as well as former Liverpool player (and fan favourite)
Robbie Fowler in the January transfer window.
It is notable that
Dudek's heroics in the
Champions league final were not enough for him to stay as first choice keeper, as
Reina replaced him in goal right away. Benitez also quickly discarded unlikely heroes
Vladimír Šmicer and
Igor Biscan, who played key roles in the European success but seemingly didn't figure in Benítez' long-term plans. Benitez also quickly sold two of his first signings in English football,
Josemi and
Antonio Núñez after they failed to establish themselves. This is an example of what some may see as Benítez' ruthlessness.
The improvements saw the club's
Premiership form improve considerably. Liverpool finished third in the league, qualifying for the
UEFA Champions League and only narrowly missed out on second place by 1 point. Liverpool also won the
FA Cup beating both
Manchester United and
Chelsea on the way to the final against
West Ham Utd. History repeated itself in the final as they then went on to lift the trophy after a penalty shoot-out, following a dramatic 3-3 draw. Liverpool came from 2–0 down and were losing 3–2 in stoppage time when
Steven Gerrard scored a dramatic late equalizer. This time
Pepe Reina saved three penalties during the shoot-out to secure the silverware.
In winning the FA Cup 'Rafa' became the only manager in the history of Liverpool Football Club to win major trophies in both of his first two seasons at the club.
2006–07 - Another European Cup Final
Benitez's Liverpool claimed the first domestic honours of the 2006–07 season with a 2–1 victory over Chelsea in the
Community Shield, despite fielding a weakened side with Gerrard and Alonso on the substitutes bench. The English Press were predicting Liverpool would challenge Chelsea for the Premiership crown after Benitez addressed Liverpool's perceived weaknesses in the transfer window by signing striker
Craig Bellamy as well as wingers
Jermaine Pennant and
Mark Gonzalez.
Although Liverpool had qualified for the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League with two games to spare (a new record for the club), and then going on to win the group with one game still left, Benitez's future at the Liverpool was called into question after poor away results in the league: his agent was quoted as saying he'd consider offers to manage in Italy. Benitez swiftly issued a statement through the club's website re-affirming his desire to remain with Liverpool for the long term.
Although the team's league results improved, their defence of the
FA Cup lasted just one game as they were knocked out by Arsenal at Anfield; and four days later they were knocked out of the League Cup, also by Arsenal losing 6–3 at Anfield, Liverpool's heaviest home defeat since 1913. However this was soon forgotten when Liverpool beat Chelsea 2–0 at
Anfield, Benitez's first league victory over Jose Mourinho's side. At the end of the league campaign, Liverpool were on 68 points, beating Arsenal to third place on goal difference but their poor away form had prevented the title challenge many were expecting - they didn't win away in the League until December.
Liverpool's 2006–07 Champions League campaign proved successful. Liverpool finished top of Group C in the group stages after beating
Maccabi Haifa in the 3rd qualifying round. They were then drawn against defending champions
FC Barcelona in the first round of the knockout stages. Benitez' side didn't have ideal preparations with a reported altercation between Liverpool players
Craig Bellamy and
John Arne Riise days before the winning the
first leg 2-1 at
Camp Nou. This was seen as a major test of Benitez' man-management at the time and he subsequently fined both players. Remarkably, Riise and Bellamy combined to score the second goal of a 2–1 victory in the first leg and Liverpool held Barca to just one goal in a 0–1 loss in the return at
Anfield, thus progressing on the
away goals rule. In preparation for the second game, Barca's Dutch coach
Frank Rijkaard described Liverpool's style of play:
"The style Liverpool have - quite physical and tactically disciplined - once you've seen a couple of their games you know how they play."
In the
quarter-finals, Liverpool achieved a 3–0 first leg lead over
PSV Eindhoven, before sealing their place in the semi-finals with a 1–0 win at
Anfield with Benitez resting several key players including Gerrard.
In the first match of the semi-final against Chelsea, Liverpool lost 1–0 at Chelsea, but won the return leg 1–0, and then ultimately winning 4–1 in a penalty shoot-out after extra time. After the game, Liverpool's new co-owner
George Gillett said:
"Rafa has been tremendous ... We knew of him but I don't think we realized how good he was, and not just as a coach. Not only was he a brilliant coach but he's a very sharp, savvy businessman. He knows what he wants and how to get it. The more we've seen of him the more impressed we've become." During the penalty shoot out, Rafa was noted for sitting down cross-legged in his technical area. He later explained that it was because fans were complaining that they couldn't see.
Liverpool contended with
AC Milan for their sixth European Cup in Athens, Greece on
May 23,
2007, in a repeat of the 2005 final but lost 2–1, after two goals by
Filippo Inzaghi. Dirk Kuyt's late consolation goal from a header off Jermaine Pennant's corner was in vain, as Milan held on to win the game. Following the defeat Benitez insisted his club's new owners had to back him in the transfer market in order for Liverpool to progress. It was reported Benitez didn't feel he'd the complete support of the new owners, a thought that was compounded by Liverpool's initial lack of activity in the transfer window, although the club played these rumours down.
During the season, Benitez continued to develop the youth team, bringing in players such as
Emiliano Insua,
Sebastián Leto and
Jordy Brouwer. The scouting programme had already successfully captured the likes of
Daniel Agger,
Mark González,
Gabriel Paletta,
Fábio Aurélio,
Scott Carson,
Miquel Roque,
Godwin Antwi,
Astrit Ajdarevic,
Paul Anderson and
Nabil El Zhar.
2007–08 - Cash flow and crisis
Liverpool's new owners
Tom Hicks and
George Gillett provided Benítez with additional transfer funds for the new season to attempt to bridge the gap to Premiership rivals Manchester United and Chelsea, but in fact Hicks and Gillett just used money the club generated itself through additional television revenues and the prize money from getting to the Champions League final, without dipping into their own pockets. Benítez broke Liverpool's transfer record when signing Spanish striker
Fernando Torres from
Atletico Madrid as well as signing young Dutch forward
Ryan Babel, West Ham attacking midfielder
Yossi Benayoun, Brazilian player of the year
Lucas Leiva and
Andriy Voronin on
Bosman. During the pre-season he also invested in a number of young foreign players such as Bulgarian under-21 goalkeeper
Nikolay Mihaylov, Australian
Dean Bouzanis Hungarian starlets
Krisztian Nemeth,
Andras Simon,
Peter Gulacsi and poached young superstars Dani Pacheco and Gerardo Bruna from Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.
Charles Itandje was signed as cover for Pepe Reina after Scott Carson was reluctantly loaned to
Aston Villa for the season.
Benítez released several players in the summer, including fan-favourites
Robbie Fowler,
Luis García and
Jerzy Dudek as well as
Djibril Cissé and
Craig Bellamy. Benitez also tried to sign left-back
Gabriel Heinze from Manchester United, however on
August 21 2007 an FA panel ruled that Manchester United were under no obligation to sell Heinze to a rival club.
Liverpool made a good start to the new league season and remained unbeaten at the end of November, having topped the Premier League table for the first time under Benitez after a comprehensive 6–0 win over
Derby County. Despite this, poor results in the Champions League and a disagreement over future transfers lead to a public falling-out with the club's owners, played out in the media at the end of November and it was suggested that Benitez's position was now under serious threat. The resulting coverage resulted in an overwhelming show of support by fans in support of Benitez which culminated in a fans' march in support of Benitez ahead of the critical Champions League home tie with Porto, which they won 4–1.
It has since emerged that at the time
Jürgen Klinsmann was offered the Liverpool job before accepting the post of Bayern Munich manager and numerous sources have linked Benitez to Real Madrid.
Honours
Liverpool FC
Valencia CF
Spanish Champions: 2
UEFA Cup: 1
CD Tenerife
Segunda División
- Third and promotion 2000-01
CF Extremadura
Segunda División
Real Madrid U-19s
Spain U-19 League: 2
Spain U-19 Cup: 2
Further Information
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