Christian Benteke leads DC United project: "I always challenge myself"

Washington, D.C. is a global city, the so-called capital of the free world thanks to its status as the political center of a superpower. Yet it turns out that even with all that juice, the District of Columbia is not quite as daunting when you’ve spent the past decade in London and Liverpool, competing in the most lavishly-hyped soccer league on the planet.

“I like D.C. because I like the pace of the city. It's really slow-paced, and you don't have to feel like you are rushing to do anything,” Christian Benteke said in a recent one-on-one conversation with MLSsoccer.com. “It’s enjoyable.

“This is something, outside of football, that I enjoy a lot. You have that freedom. You're just a normal guy, you know?” he added of his daily life in the United States, which revolves around his home in the Northern Virginia suburbs and the daily commute to his club’s training facility in Leesburg. “That's a great feeling personally, because this is what I was looking for, just to be a normal guy, doing normal things, doing my job on the field … this is what the country allows you to do.”

This is most definitely not the kind of description DMV residents are accustomed to hearing about their bustling metropolis. But it says a lot about how quickly and smoothly Benteke came to grips with his new life in North America since joining D.C. United as a Designated Player two years ago – and why he just re-upped his contract, the largest in club history, through 2025 with a team option for ‘26.

Rising tides

D.C. have missed the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs during his first two seasons, and face an uphill climb to qualify for this year’s edition. But the Belgian striker enjoys the environment, cherishes the sizable role he’s been entrusted with and has grown fascinated by the unique facets of Major League Soccer, by both its level and diversity of play.

“Coming from Europe, you're not aware, or you don't know what you're going to face. But I was gladly surprised [at first]; not now, no more. I'm really enjoying the league. It’s really a good league,” said the Aston Villa and Liverpool alum. “I think MLS has nothing to be ashamed about. Like, they can be up there as one of the best leagues outside those top, top [European] leagues.

“What I like here is that every game, it's a different game, and based on how long you're going to fly for that game, the weather. So you can really see the difference comparing to Europe, where it's usually, I would say, the same.”

Perhaps most importantly of all, he believes in head coach Troy Lesesne and the ongoing restoration project he and general manager Ally Mackay, both of whom are in their first year on the job, are overseeing at Audi Field.

“The hardest thing in football is sometimes when you have a vision, or you are working into something, to build something, and you don't have results,” Benteke noted. “Then you can be like, ‘Oh, is it really worth it to go and try to believe what we are trying to do?’ Because obviously the results are not following, and it's so easy just to say, ‘Just let's give up and just think about something else.’

“But I truly believe that – I've been here for two years now. I played against a lot of teams, and I have the feeling that we can compete against them. It's about some details that cost us a lot of points – I think we dropped more than 20 points [from leading positions]. So that means we can score goals, we can lead. But now, it's how we can hold on to those results.”

All-around threat

Benteke remains highly effective as he approaches his 34th birthday.

With 17 goals in 23 matches – more than 40% of his team’s total output – he’s tied with Real Salt Lake’s Chicho Arango atop the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi race, powered by an uncanny aerial mastery that makes him a highly reliable reference point for a team in transition. He’s taken part in far and away the most aerial duels in MLS with 347, winning 69.5% of them; among those with at least 1,000 minutes played, only a handful of others, all of them defenders, have a higher win percentage.

“He's incredible,” Lesesne said after Benteke bagged his second hat trick of the season in a 3-2 road win over Atlanta United on May 11. “He's such an incredible presence in our team beyond the goal-scoring.

“He is a handful … he allows other players to come into the match and have dangerous opportunities themselves. I'm very lucky to work with him.”

Then again, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised. Even two years after leaving Crystal Palace, his third and final stop in the rough and tumble of the vaunted English Premier League, Benteke remains one of the most aerially dominant players in the history of that competition, second only to Peter Crouch in total battles won.

“I think when you grow and you understand the game, then you understand what is your strength and what is your weakness,” Benteke explained. “Then you try to focus on where you’re good at. And I know that my aerial duels and my headers, it's one of my strengths, so I make sure that I use it as much as I can.

“I feel good,” he added. “When you've been in the Prem for 10 years, there is no other league tougher than the Premier League. So my body is used to having contact, and I'm grateful because I haven't been injured this season, being healthy. And of course, I'm looking after my body.”

Perhaps most remarkably of all, Benteke has thrived on the field even as his partner and two young children spend most of their time halfway around the world in Dubai, their home base of choice for the last several years. Whether it’s him flying to the United Arab Emirates or them jetting into Dulles International Airport, the family reunites in person every two or three months during the season.

“At the end of the day, I have to work if I want to provide a good life for my kids, for my family,” said Benteke. “And those are the sacrifices that you have to make while you’re in the game, and you just have to embrace those moments, because I'm closer to the end than the beginning. So it's not really something hard to do, because you know what comes at the end of it.”

Showing the way

That perspective informs another vital contribution: his quiet mentorship of D.C.’s promising crop of young talent, the likes of homegrowns Ted Ku-DiPietro, Matai Akinmboni and Jackson Hopkins.

“I'm trying not to overdo with them, giving them a lot of information,” said Benteke. “I think they are good players. They know how to play the game, but it's more about how I behave, how I come every morning, what I do, because sometimes actions talk more than just words. So by just how I am on a daily basis, they know what to do if they want to have a great career.”

If only expected goals counted as much as the real thing. United’s 2024 might look quite different today.

Considering this was widely perceived – both inside the club and out – to be a rebuilding year for the Black-and-Red, they have been surprisingly effective under Lesesne, leading MLS in xG for months, a statistic that generally suggests effective play across the pitch, final results notwithstanding. Even after an 11-game winless skid from mid-May to mid-July, United remain among the league’s best in the category with 49.9 xG, which ranks them seventh in MLS, and they’re one of only two teams in the top 10 who do not currently occupy a playoff spot.

That’s helped fuel belief in Lesesne’s up-tempo, pressing-oriented game model even when points slip from their grasp. So has the young, self-made coach’s knack for leadership and culture-building in his first permanent head coaching job at this level after earning respect and results, but not the full-time gig, during an interim stint with the New York Red Bulls last season.

“I like Troy's ideas,” said Benteke. “To come as a first manager for D.C., and knowing his background, it's also a big step for him. But I think he was really, really determined with the ID, how we wanted to play, and we have an identity. When we play, we know this is D.C., this is the way that they play, and this is something that I appreciate from him, because we have a clear ID, that we win, that we lose, that we tie, we have a clear ID.

“All credit to him, because obviously we are not doing the best season in the world, but with all the circumstances that’s been around with injured players, missing players and everything, he’s been a real pro. He's been really focused on his job and how we can just keep going and get better.”

Tactical balance

Even when United’s exuberance exposes them, with their intent to impose themselves on the opponent occasionally leaving them vulnerable in the back, Benteke much prefers being a protagonist.

“I've been in a team where we're just going to let the other team have the ball, we’re just going to defend deep and counterattack them. And I've been also in a team where we’re front-foot, we press,” he said. “I like the way that we play because we have to be brave. We have to be brave, we have to try to win the ball really high and give us a chance to score goals.

“But now it's about how we can maintain that. Because I feel like sometimes the reason we lose games, it's because we don't manage our games. We concede silly goals, silly mistakes, and it's usually not because the opponent is way better than us. It's usually based on us.”

Lesesne has been just as impressed with his club’s brightest star.

“Any time I have any interaction with him, I'm impressed by his growth mindset,” Lesesne said in May. “He's just so open-minded. I can be really honest and really critical of Christian. He likes that.

“He likes to get really direct feedback and I think that sets the tone for our entire group to say, let's hold one another accountable. When you talk about cultures and environments, when you have someone like that who is your leader and then he always goes and influences the game and impacts the game for us with goals, it makes my job much, much easier.”

Next step

While Benteke’s knowledge of United’s proud past is clear – he says he’s “humbled to represent such a huge club,” and takes motivation from the challenge “to lead this club to where it belongs” – underachievement is D.C.’s modern norm. They haven’t qualified for the postseason since 2019, haven’t won a playoff game since 2015 and Audi Field has hosted just one postseason MLS match since opening six years ago.

So United supporters have grown hard-bitten over the past decade or two. But with three wins in their last four lifting the Black-and-Red to just two points below the Eastern Conference’s playoff line, Benteke sees a path to that goal, which would offer a tangible milestone of progress amid the rebuild.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “It's up to us, and it would be a good indication if we grew through those [final seven] games, or if we still need to improve in some way. So it's going to be a good test for us. We're still in the mix.”

He says that, more than the Golden Boot itself, is fueling his individual pursuit of the goals that will be D.C.’s lifeblood.

“When I started the season, I wanted to play well to make sure that we win football matches and I score goals. The fight has always been against me, not against anyone else,” said the striker. “So I always challenge myself to be a better player and I know by doing that, I will always be great, I will always score goals. And then at the end of the day, we will see who is going to be the best goalscorer.

“This is not something I obsess about, but obviously I’m aware of it.”