Benedict McCarthy (born 12 November 1977) is a South African football coach and former player who was most recently a first-team coach at Manchester United.
He previously worked as head coach of South African Premier Division team AmaZulu.
McCarthy is the South Africa national team’s all-time top scorer with 31 goals.
He is also the only South African to have won the UEFA Champions League, doing so with Porto in 2003–04.
Early life
McCarthy was born in Cape Town and grew up in Hanover Park in the Cape Flats, an area notorious for its high unemployment rate and gang violence.
He is the son of Dudley and Dora McCarthy and has two brothers and a sister. His older brother is Jerome McCarthy, a former professional footballer who played for Kaizer Chiefs and Manning Rangers, among other clubs, while his younger brother Mark played football at Franklin Pierce University in the United States.
McCarthy began playing at a local side called Young Pirates, which was managed by his uncles.
He then joined the youth structures of a local amateur club called Crusaders. At age 17, he was signed by first division club Seven Stars.
Club career
Playing for Seven Stars, the 18-year-old McCarthy scored 1 goal in 29 matches 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 Dutch club Ajax’s feeder team, Ajax Cape Town.
In 1997, after an impressive showing at the African Youth Championship and FIFA World Youth Championship in Malaysia, he joined Ajax in the Eredivisie, where he scored nine goals and was crowned champion in his first season.
Although regarded as one of the best African players at the time, McCarthy never established himself as a regular choice for Celta’s manager, Víctor Fernández.
After two poor seasons at the Galician club, he was loaned to struggling Porto in the 2001–02 season, where he soon rediscovered the form that took him to Europe.
For the 2003–04 Primeira Liga season, he earned the Golden Boot award (with 20 goals in 23 matches) on the season’s final matchday with a hat-trick, and was instrumental in Porto’s run in the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, which they won.
He scored two goals against Manchester United to defeat them in the second round.
On 25 July 2006, McCarthy flew out to England to undergo a medical and probable contract signing to join Blackburn Rovers.
Three days later, he signed a four-year contract with Blackburn for a £2.5 million transfer fee.
The move meant that Rovers regularly fielded a side that contained two South African Internationals, the other being Aaron Mokoena who joined the club the year previous.
McCarthy completed a move to West Ham United for an undisclosed fee on transfer deadline day, 1 February 2010.
He signed a two-and-a-half-year contract that was due to run until the summer of 2012.
He made his Premier League debut for West Ham against Burnley at Turf Moor in a 2–1 defeat on 6 February 2010, where he sustained an injury which would keep him out for six weeks.
After leaving West Ham, McCarthy trained with former club Ajax Cape Town during the ABSA Premier League off-season.
On 2 August, Orlando Pirates confirmed the signing of McCarthy on a two-year deal, ending his 14-year spell in Europe.
Personal life
In 2004, McCarthy married Maria Santos from Spain. They have three daughters together: Minna, Mya and Allegra. In 2007, they separated.
In May 2014, McCarthy married Scottish model Stacey Munro. Together, they have one daughter, Lima Rose, born 2012 and one son, Lio Romero, born in 2019.
Net Worth
Benni McCarthy is undoubtedly one of the richest football legends in South Africa. He has a Net Worth which is estimated to be over R100 Million.
