While one iconic former Liverpool forward is tearing the league apart, another man who had a much less successful spell at Anfield is making quite the impression himself.
With just ten games gone at the start of the new campaign, the one-time Stanley Park misfit has 11 goals to his name already. Three of those came on Sunday afternoon, the striker plundering a 36-minute hat-trick of headers away from home to take his side up to seventh in the still-embryonic league table.
While Liverpool legend Luis Suarez continues to pull up trees alongside Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and one Lionel Messi at an Inter Miami outfit with a distinctly Catalan flavour, DC United’s head coach Troy Lesesne feels that the race to be crowned the Major League Soccer’s ‘MVP’ should not be a foregone conclusion.
Christian Benteke might lack Suarez or Messi’s star power, but there can be no arguments about his output. Not after he single-handedly put Atlanta to the sword.
Two former Liverpool stars fight it out for Golden Boot
“When you talk about Golden Boot, that’s a possibility,” Lesesne tells MLS Soccer, a man who joined Liverpool one year after Suarez departed for Barcelona moving level with the Anfield icon at the top of the goalscoring charts.
“But then in terms of MVP and that type of talk, I think that should be in the same conversation with what Christian’s allowing our team to do.
“Because without him, we don’t have some of the results that we have. He really is carrying this team in a number of different ways and I’m hoping we can continue to build on that.”
Benteke, who’s best moments in English football arguably came in an Aston Villa shirt, managed only 10 goals in 42 games during his one and only season at Liverpool. The one-time Crystal Palace targetman has beaten that tally already in the opening weeks of the 2024 MLS campaign, while closing in on last season’s tally of 14.
“(Benteke) is incredible,” Lesesne adds, the Belgian bruiser thriving alongside one-time Leeds United playmaker Mateusz Klich at the Audi Field in Washington.
“He’s such an incredible presence in our team beyond the goalscoring. I don’t think anyone’s going to sit here and create a narrative that’s not going to talk about him first because he deserves to be talked about.
“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.”
Christian Benteke an MLS marvel at DC United
With 11 Benteke is the joint-top scorer in the MLS as things stand. Suarez also has 11, one ahead of Messi, with former Celtic and Sunderland winger Lewis Morgan leading the chasing pack with eight cfor New York City FC.
Lesesne, meanwhile, insists that it is not only Benteke’s ability but his attitude which makes the veteran striker such a huge presence both on and off the pitch at DC United.
“Any time I have any interaction with him, I’m impressed by his growth mindset,” the coach adds. “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.”
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