Loris Benito Souto (born 7 January 1992) is a Swiss professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Young Boys and the Switzerland national team.

Club career

Benito was born in

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

, Switzerland. A product of local

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss professional football club based in Aarau. Founded in 1902, the club competes in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from the Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was form ...

youth ranks, he made his professional debut on 1 November 2009 at age 17 under then-coach Martin Andermatt. His performances led to a move in 2012 to

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a professional football club based in Zurich, Switzerland. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League thirteen times and the Swiss Cup ten times. ...

. On 10 March 2013, in an away match against

FC Thun Fussballclub Thun 1898 is a Swiss association football, football team from the Bernese Oberland town of Thun. The club plays in the Swiss Super League from 2025–26, the top tier of the Swiss football league system, following promotion from the ...

, Benito was bitten on the finger by a

beech marten The beech marten (''Martes foina''), also known as the stone marten, house marten or white breasted marten, is a species of marten native to much of Europe and Central Asia, though it has established a feral population in North America. It is li ...

he had caught after it invaded the pitch. After solid performances in the Swiss league, news started about a potential move abroad. On 22 June 2014, Benito signed a five-year deal with Portuguese champions Benfica for an unconfirmed fee of around €2.5 million. On 18 October 2014, Benito made his debut for Benfica in a win at

S.C. Covilhã Sporting Clube da Covilhã, commonly known as just Sporting da Covilhã or Sp. Covilhã, is a Portuguese association football, football club from the city of Covilhã that plays in the third-tier Liga 3 (Portugal), Liga 3. The club was founded on ...

(2–3) in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

. On 6 December 2014, he debuted in

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

in a home win (3–0) against

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

. On 22 February 2015, Benito debuted for

Benfica B Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B" (), commonly known as Benfica B, is a Portuguese professional football team based in Seixal. Founded in 1999, dissolved in 2006, and restarted in 2012, it is the reserve team of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. They play ...

against

Oriental The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

in Segunda Liga. On 23 June 2015, he returned to Swiss football, signing a four-year contract with

BSC Young Boys Berner Sport Club Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation, ) is a Swiss professional sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 17 Swiss league championships and eight Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss footbal ...

. His first two seasons back in Switzerland were spent mostly on the sidelines with injuries including a metatarsal fracture and torn ligaments in his knee. He also played for French club

FC Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux () or simply Bordeaux, is a French Association football, football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde (department), Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitain ...

between 2019 and 2021. On 30 January 2022, Benito signed a 1.5-year contract with

Sion Sion may refer to * an alternative transliteration of Zion People * Sion (name) or Siôn, a Welsh and other given name and surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Shion or Sion, a Japanese given name Plac ...

. On 4 July 2022, he returned to Young Boys on a three-year contract. He scored a late

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

against

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

on 22 January 2025, to put Celtic in the knockout stages of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

International career

In May 2019, Benito played in the

2019 UEFA Nations League Finals The 2019 UEFA Nations League Finals was the final tournament of the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League, 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international Association football, football competition involving the me ...

, where his team finished fourth. In 2021, he was called up to the national team for the

2020 UEFA European Championship The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by the Union of Eu ...

, where the team created one of the main sensations of the tournament reaching the quarter-finals.

Personal life

He is the nephew of Ivan Benito. Of Galician descent, Benito is fluent in German, Italian, Spanish, English, Portuguese (Galician), and French.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Switzerland's goal tally first.''

Honours

Benfica *

: 2014–15 *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

: 2014–15 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

FC Zürich *

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

: 2013–14 Young Boys *

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

: 2017–18, 2018–19,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Individual *

Team of the Year: 2018–19

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Benito, Loris 1992 births Living people Footballers from Aarau Swiss men's footballers Swiss expatriate men's footballers Switzerland men's youth international footballers Switzerland men's under-21 international footballers Switzerland men's international footballers Swiss people of Spanish descent Swiss people of Asturian descent Swiss people of Galician descent Men's association football midfielders UEFA Euro 2020 players Swiss Super League players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Ligue 1 players FC Aarau players FC Zürich players S.L. Benfica footballers S.L. Benfica B players BSC Young Boys players FC Girondins de Bordeaux players FC Sion players Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in France Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Swiss expatriate sportspeople in France 21st-century Swiss sportsmen