Benni McCarthy

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Benni McCarthy
Personal information
Full name	Benedict Saul McCarthy
Date of birth	12 November 1977
Place of birth	Cape Town, South Africa
Nickname	Benni
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Blackburn Rovers
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1995-1997 1997 1998-1999 1999-2003 2001-2002 2003-2006 2006-	Seven Stars Ajax Cape Town Ajax Celta Vigo → Porto (loan) Porto Blackburn Rovers	49 (39) 10 (6) 36 (21) 65 (10) 11 (12) 75 (34) 15 (7)
National team**
1997-	South Africa	65 (28)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:59, 23 October 2006 (UTC). ** National team caps and goals correct as of 1 October 06.

Benedict "Benni" McCarthy (born 12 November 1977 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a professional footballer, currently playing for English side Blackburn Rovers and South Africa.

Contents 1 Road to Amsterdam 2 Spain 3 FC Porto 4 Blackburn Rovers 5 Racism Row 6 National team 7 Titles 8 External links

[edit] Road to Amsterdam

Playing for Seven Stars, the 18-year old McCarthy scored 27 goals in 29 games in the 1995-96 season, followed by another 12 goals in 20 matches, which earned him a transfer to Cape Town Spurs which two years later merged with Seven Stars to form Ajax Amsterdam farm team Ajax Cape Town.

In 1997, after an impressive showing at the African Youth Cup and FIFA World Youth Championship, he joined the Dutch side, where he scored 9 goals and was crowned champion in his first season. After a relatively successful 1998-99 season he was sold to Spanish side Celta Vigo for a sum reported to be over 6m EUR, at the time the most expensive transfer for a South African player.

[edit] Spain

Although regarded as one of the best African players at the time, McCarthy never established himself as a regular choice for Celta Vigo's manager, Víctor Fernández. After two poor seasons at the Galician club, he was loaned to struggling FC Porto in the 2001-02 season where he soon rediscovered the form that took him to Europe.

At Porto he played under the then newly-appointed coach José Mourinho for an underperforming team had never been quite good enough to challenge for the top honours in Europe. However, that would soon change.

After representing Bafana Bafana in the 2002 African Nations Cup, his national side were knocked out in the semi-finals, McCarthy returned to Porto where he became the main force behind the team's recovery. He helped them to third place in the league and automatic qualification for the UEFA Cup by scoring an impressive 12 goals in only 10 matches, but Porto's finances did not allow them to keep the player, despite the desire of both sides to continue.

So, in 2002-03 Mccarthy returned to Celta Vigo where he spent a lot of time on the bench as squad player while Porto captured the League Cup in Portugal and the UEFA Cup. When former teammate Hélder Postiga was sold to English side Tottenham Hotspur in the 2003-04 season, Porto finally acquired the funds to buy McCarthy for a sum of €3.5 M.

[edit] FC Porto

On his return, McCarthy not only found club morale was at its highest for years, but that Porto now had a highly organized team with some of the best Portuguese players. He grabbed the Golden Boot award (with 20 goals in 23 games) on the final day with a terrific hat-trick, and was instrumental in Porto's superb run in the 2004 UEFA Champions League, which they won. Notably, he was responsible for scoring two goals against Manchester United to defeat them in the second round.

When José Mourinho left and was (shortly) replaced by Italian coach Luigi Del Neri, McCarthy considered leaving for the FA Premier League, but the two years left in his contract posed a problem. When the Italian coach was fired and replaced by his former Celta coach Fernandez (who he said he would rather quit playing than be coached by again) he tried to pressure Porto to sell him to Everton, who needed a replacement for Wayne Rooney.

Porto refused to sell and despite Fernandez praising McCarthy and describing him as a world class striker, rumours continued to rage about which Premiership club McCarthy would move to, with West Ham United and Blackburn Rovers being mooted as possible destinations. Blackburn Rovers were in talks with Porto but could not agree a fee. However, he stayed with the club and was rewarded with winning another Portuguese national championship with FC Porto in the 2005-06 season.

On 25th July, 2006, McCarthy flew out to England to undergo a medical and probable contract signing to join Blackburn Rovers [1] and, three days later, signed a four year contract with Blackburn Rovers for an £2.5m fee.

[edit] Blackburn Rovers

After a disappointing perfomance in the side's 3-0 defeat to Portsmouth, McCarthy found the net on his debut at Ewood Park against Everton on the 23rd of August 2006. McCarthy has proved to be an instant hit with the Rovers fans as they chanted his name throughout the game. He also managed to score goal on his European debut for the club in a 2-2 against Salzburg in the UEFA Cup, which earned them a draw and also managed to get a fantastic goal in the return leg at Ewood Park, where they won 2:0.

[edit] Racism Row

On October 19th 2006, McCarthy, claimed to have been abused by Wisla Krakow defender Nikola Mijailović in a Uefa Cup tie. The FA confirmed: "We have written to Uefa, asking them to investigate allegations of racism."

Wisla claim they have already investigated the incident and found nothing to substantiate the claims.

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes asked Uefa to take action and the FA has added its support.

Uefa had warned it may be difficult to find any "hard evidence", but Hughes said: "Uefa should take as strong action as it is allowed to do. "

The end result was that Mijailović was banned for five games. He appealed, however his case was thrown out.

[edit] National team

The 1998 Football World Cup in France was the first time South Africa's national football team had reached the finals and McCarthy (then at Ajax) was one of their key players. After a 3-0 defeat against future World Champions France, South Africa played their second game against Denmark. Trailing since the 13^th minute, McCarthy tied the game at 1-1 in the 52^nd minute and giving South Africa a chance for qualification. However, the third game also ended a draw (against Saudi Arabia), which left the South Africans in third place and eliminated from the competition.

The Korea/Japan World Cup saw history repeating for the South Africans. After a 2-2 draw against Paraguay and a 1-0 victory over the Slovenians, McCarthy's 30^th minute equalizer in the last game against Spain was just not enough. South Africa eventually lost 3-2 and finished with another third place in the group stage.

There was often conflict over McCarthy's lack of participation in national team matches (whose interests often collide with the his clubs') and he actually retired from international games after the 2002 World Cup. However, he returned to the national team in 2004 and as of October 2005, he and Shaun Bartlett are joint leading goalscorers for the national team with 28 each. (Since both are still active, the lead may yet change several times.) He also scored 4 goals in 13 minutes in a 1998 Africans Nations Cup game.

[edit] Titles

• Dutch championship: 97/98
• Dutch Cups: 97/98, 98/99
• Portuguese championships: 03/04, 05/06
• Portuguese Cups: 05/06
• Portuguese supercups: 03/04, 04/05
• UEFA Champions League Cup: 03/04
• FIFA Intercontinental Cup: 2004

[edit] External links

• Benni McCarthy career stats at Soccerbase

	South Africa squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Vonk | 2 Mnguni | 3 Nyathi | 4 Jackson | 5 Fish | 6 Masinga | 7 Fortune | 8 Phiri | 9 Bartlett | 10 Moshoeu | 11 Mkhalele | 12 Augustine | 13 Buckley | 14 Sikhosana | 15 Khumalo | 16 Baloyi | 17 McCarthy | 18 Morula | 19 Radebe | 20 Mokoena | 21 Issa | 23 Gopane | Coach: Troussier

	South Africa squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup
1 Vonk | 2 Nzama | 3 Carnell | 4 A. Mokoena | 5 Lekgetho | 6 Sibaya | 7 Fortune | 8 Mngomeni | 9 Mukasi | 10 Mnguni | 11 Pule | 12 T. Mokoena | 13 Issa | 14 Nomvethe | 15 Zuma | 16 Arendse | 17 McCarthy | 18 Buckley | 19 Radebe | 20 Marlin | 21 Pienaar | 22 Molefe | 23 Koumantarakis | Coach: Sono

Blackburn Rovers F.C. - Current Squad
1 Friedel | 2 Neill | 3 Khizanishvili | 4 Todd | 5 Tugay | 6 Nelsen | 7 Emerton | 8 Savage | 9 Nonda | 10 McCarthy | 11 Bentley | 12 Gamst Pedersen | 13 Enckelman | 14 Reid | 15 Mokoena | 16 Henchoz | 17 Jeffers | 18 Gallagher | 20 Ooijer | 21 Matteo | 23 Brown | 24 McEveley | 26 Taylor | 27 Derbyshire | 29 Treacy | 30 Roberts | 31 Peter | 32 Nolan | 33 Gray | Manager: Hughes