Christian Benteke is a tall, somewhat gangly professional football player who has spent a reasonable amount of his career playing top-flight football with some of the top teams in the English Premier League (EPL). Benteke also plays for the Belgian national football team as a striker, a position he holds for his team as well.
Benteke started his professional career at Standard Liege, a club in his home country of Belgium. However, he gained greater recognition when he joined Aston Villa, which allowed him to shine in Europe’s top league. His outstanding contribution saw him move to Liverpool FC as part of a big deal.
Since then, his career hasn’t really hit the heights expected of someone with his quality and potential, but he continues to fight to achieve it. He made over 30 appearances for Belgium and took part in UEFA Euro 2016.
Biography of Christian Benteke
Benteke was born on December 3, 1990 in his home country of Congo. He and his family emigrated to Belgium three years after he was born in 1993. Christian developed a passion for football after arriving in Belgium and started training to make a career out of it.
His career with Standard Liège and Genk
His first recorded team playing experience was with junior football team JS Pierreuse, after which he moved to Genk, where he remained from 2007 to 2009. He then joined Standard Liège in January 2009 for the rest of the 2008/2009 season. He scored 3 goals in 12 appearances for the club, which went on to win the Belgian league. The following season he was loaned to KV Kortrijk, where he scored 14 goals for the Belgian Pro League side. After a disappointing second loan season, he joined Genk for the 2011/2012 season. He had a career-high 19 goals and 9 assists in 37 games, including 20 starts.
AstonVilla
A few games into the 2012/2013 season, Christian was signed by Premier League club Aston Villa for an estimated fee of around £7million. After scoring in his first game against Swansea City, Benteke maintained rich goalscoring form throughout the season, inspiring wins over the likes of Norwich, Liverpool and a 6-1 defeat of Sunderland. He finished the season with a total of 23 goals in all competitions, including Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas, ex-England international Michael Owen and his own manager Paul Lambert. Christian came second with Gareth Bale for the PFA Young Player of the Year award.
The striker carried his rich scoring form into the next campaign, scoring his first four goals in as many games. However, his deafening form was cut short when he suffered a hip flexor injury against Norwich City, who were supposed to sideline him for at least six weeks. He returned to action and scored his first goal against Arsenal after a 12-game drought. Christian Benteke went on to score against Liverpool, West Brom and Norwich City before tearing his Achilles tendon in April 2014 while training. He was out for a much longer period which saw him ruled out of the season and missing out on the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Christian Benteke had a disappointing 2014/2015 season as he experienced several dry spells during the campaign. However, he rallied somewhat, scoring 11 goals in 9 appearances after Tim Sherwood took over as manager. He also led his side to their first FA Cup final in 15 years. Unfortunately, they lost the title to Arsenal in a 4-0 defeat.
liverpool
The highly rated striker was snapped up by Liverpool, for a club record fee of £32.5million, signed on July 22, 2015. Sadly, barring some spectacular goals against Chelsea and Leicester City, his only season at Liverpool was to forget. This was mainly due to the fact that he was still suffering from serious injury problems and also did not fit the style of play that new coach Jürgen Klopp wanted. He has scored just 10 goals in 42 appearances with most of them coming from the bench. He transferred to Crystal Palace at the end of the season.
Crystal Palace
The Belgium international became a Crystal Palace on August 20, 2016, Crystal Palace will have to pay £27million for his services. Three weeks later he scored his first goal for the club in a 1-2 win at Middlesbrough. Benteke also recorded two braces, the first on his birthday against Southampton, and the second against his former team, Liverpool, on 23 April 2017. He finished the season with 17 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions. The 2017/2018 season turned out to be another disaster for the striker as he scored just 3 goals in 30 games the whole season.
Christian Benteke’s career in the national team
The striker has represented Belgium since arriving as a teenager, qualifying for his country in the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Championship, where he scored once in 3 appearances. His first goal for the senior national team came in a 4–2 victory on August 15, 2012 against the Netherlands. Benteke holds the record for the fastest goal in a World Cup competition, having scored just 8.1 seconds after the match against Gibraltar in 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying. He netted 12 goals in 32 selections for Belgium
His family
The Crystal Palace striker was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in the capital Kinshasa. In 1993, Benteke and his parents; Jeane-Pierre Benteke (father) and Marie-Clair Benteke (mother) fled the country due to the untold difficulties caused by the regime of President Mobutu. The family moved to Liège in Belgium.
Benteke has a younger brother, Jonathan, who was born two years after the family arrived in Belgium. Jonathan is also a football player who has played as a striker for teams like Zulte-Waregem and Omonia Nicosia. He joined Crystal Palace’s development squad in the same season as Christian and was replaced by him in a game against Middlesbrough. On 6 February 2018, Jonathan joined League One side Oldham Athletic on a short-term deal which lasted until the end of the season.
Christian Benteke married his girlfriend Fortune Benteke in a lavish closed ceremony in mid-2017.
Height and width
Christian is fit and looks fit too, standing tall at an impressive 1.9m (6ft 3in). He also maintains a healthy weight of around 83 kg. As an athlete, he looks in good shape all the time, even though he has had several injuries, but no one has put him out of the game for good. We hope he continues to shine. in the field.