{"id":3914,"date":"2020-04-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3914"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:21:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T15:21:17","slug":"goyo-benito-footballer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3914","title":{"rendered":"Goyo Benito, footballer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gregorio "Goyo" Benito Rubio \u2011 a Spanish footballer who played as a central defender – succumbed to Covid-19 on 2 April 2020.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

He spent most of his 16-year professional career with Real Madrid.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Benito was born in El Puente del Arzobispo, Toledo, Castile-La Mancha. After practicing track and field in his early teens, inclusively being national javelin throw champion at school level, he signed for La Liga powerhouse Real Madrid in the summer of 1963, aged nearly 17. After two years on loan to neighbouring Rayo Vallecano, in Segunda División (his second being cut short as he was called for military service in Sidi Ifni), he returned to his main club, remaining there for the following 14 seasons and winning six leagues and five Spanish Cups.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

In 1982, after just 16 league appearances in his last two seasons combined, Benito retired from football at the age of 35. He amassed Real Madrid official totals of 420 games and three goals; for his services to the club, he was only one of two players to have the Laureada being bestowed upon him by president Santiago Bernabéu – the other being Pirri.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Benito earned 22 caps for Spain, over roughly seven years. His debut was on 9 May 1971 in a 2–0 away win against Cyprus for the UEFA Euro 1972 qualifiers, but he would never take part in any major international tournament as the national team failed to qualify for any during that timeframe.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Additionally, Benito was part of the squad at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico, playing all the matches for the eventual quarter-finalists.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Benito spent his final years in a nursing home in Madrid, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. On 2 April 2020, the 73-year-old died of Covid-19.<\/p>\r\n<\/p>

<\/p>\n \n \n

<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregorio "Goyo" Benito Rubio \u2011 a Spanish footballer who played as a central defender – succumbed to Covid-19 on 2 April 2020. He spent most of his 16-year professional career with Real Madrid. Benito was born in El Puente del Arzobispo, Toledo, Castile-La Mancha. After practicing track and field in his early teens, inclusively being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[46,7019,19],"tags":[6036,6260,6373],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/wp-content\/uploads\/imageholder\/uploads\/Goyo_Benito.jfif","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3537,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3537","url_meta":{"origin":3914,"position":0},"title":"Robert Beck, pentathlete","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Lee Beck \u2011 an American modern pentathlete and fencer who won three gold medals in these disciplines at the Pan American Games in 1963-1971 \u2013 died of coronavirus on April 2, 2020. \u00a0 He also won bronze medals in the individual and team modern pentathlon events at the 1960\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3004,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3004","url_meta":{"origin":3914,"position":1},"title":"Benito Joanet, football player and manager","date":"March 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Benito Joanet Gim\u00e9nez \u2011 a Spanish football player and manager \u2011 died in Alicante on 22 March 2020 from COVID-19. \u00a0 Born in Esplugues de Llobregat, Joanet played as a goalkeeper for Espanyol, Real Zaragoza, Terrassa, Europa and Deportivo de La Coru\u00f1a. \u00a0 After retiring he became a football manager,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Noteworthy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2627,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2627","url_meta":{"origin":3914,"position":2},"title":"Miguel Jones, footballer","date":"April 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Miguel Jones Castillo \u2013a Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder for SD Indautxu and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid during the 1950s and 1960s \u2013 passed away due to Covid-19 on 8 April 2020. \u00a0 Although born in Spanish Guinea, now known as Equatorial Guinea, Jones grew up in Bilbao. 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He spent the majority of his career at Atalanta in Serie A.","rel":"","context":"In "Italy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2639,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=2639","url_meta":{"origin":3914,"position":4},"title":"Francesco La Rosa, footballer","date":"April 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Francesco La Rosa \u2013an Italian footballer who played as a forward and competed in the men's tournament at the 1952 Summer Olympics \u2013 died from Covid-19 on 8 April 2020.","rel":"","context":"In "Italy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3587,"url":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/?p=3587","url_meta":{"origin":3914,"position":5},"title":"Arnold Sowinski, footballer","date":"April 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Arnold Sowinski, a French footballer who played with RC Lens, died from Covid-19 on 2 April 2020. \u00a0 He also managed RC Lens on four different occasions. \u00a0 Sowinski was born in France and was of Polish descent.","rel":"","context":"In "France"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6349,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3914\/revisions\/6349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/personmatters.com\/Remembering_Covid_19_Victims\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}