Of the 832 players who will travel to the World Cup finals in Qatar next month, Jewison Bennette is almost certain to be among the youngest.
The 18-year-old winger is Costa Rica’s bright attacking hope, a darting figure who has helped the Central American minnows reach a third straight tournament. Spain, Germany and Japan can now expect to see Bennette, all pace and direct running, at first-hand in Group E.
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Two goals, his first at international level, in a 2-2 draw with South Korea last month are expected to have removed any doubt over his inclusion in Luis Fernando Suarez’s 26-man squad and ensures Bennette might have the world watching his every jink.
One group sure to be keeping a close eye will be those he leaves in the north east of England. Bennette has belonged to Sunderland since late August, signing an initial four-year contract with the Championship club. There is a detailed structure to the transfer that brought the teenager from his hometown club of Herediano but, all told, involves a fee unlikely to top £1million.
Sunderland have been determined to make Bennette’s introduction to English football a slow one over the last two months. Every appearance in the Championship has so far come off the bench, including a fifth cameo in Saturday’s 2-1 loss away to Swansea City. The emphasis continues to fall on patience.
Yet there is an undeniable excitement around the once unknown youngster. A late equaliser in the 2-2 draw away to Watford that preceded the most recent international break announced Bennette’s arrival and the two home games that followed — goalless draws against Preston North End and Blackpool — have produced an audible buzz of anticipation around the Stadium of Light.
“He’s exciting,” said head coach Tony Mowbray on the back of Bennette’s two goals against South Korea. “He’s very fast and direct, and is one of those electric players that gets people out of their seats.”
With Mowbray, though, there is always a warning on those still developing. “We shouldn’t be building him up into something at this moment in time.”
That does little to dampen the affection building for Bennette. In the hours that followed a 0-0 draw with Preston at the end of last month, the teenager was spotted taking a bus bound for South Shields as a means of getting home. The youngster happily posed for pictures on a ride packed with match-going supporters. One said there was a roar when Bennette dismounted in Cleadon, a pleasant village close to Sunderland’s training base at The Academy of Light.
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“Fantastic, wasn’t it?” said a smiling Mowbray a few days later, also revealing that he had allowed Bennette’s father to hitch a ride on the team coach home from the draw at Watford after becoming unsure how he might make the 250-mile journey back.
Bennette, unwittingly, has become an emblem for what Sunderland want to be under majority shareholder Kyril Louis-Dreyfus.
There is an eagerness to pursue potential over experience, no matter where in the world it is found. It is one of the reasons that ensured Alex Neil’s departure in August, a day after Bennette had signed, was inevitable.
Stuart Harvey, Sunderland’s head of player recruitment for the last 18 months, is credited with discovering Bennette. A scouting mission to Costa Rica in the late summer had been made to weigh up another potential target only for his teenage team-mate to catch the eye.
Previous matches were then studied before it was then decided Harvey would return to South America to watch Bennette in another two matches for Herediano, who had indicated to Sunderland their willingness to sell. Minds were effectively made up after the first before Harvey then convinced the player and his father, Jewison Snr, to travel over 5,000 miles to join Sunderland.
“I think everyone has seen the talent this kid has got and Sunderland wasn’t his only option, so you have to go and have to convince,” said Sunderland’s sporting director Kristjaan Speakman.
Bennette signed off with a goal in his final game for Herediano, a 4-2 win over Sporting San Jose, and 12 days later he was unveiled, draped in a Costa Rica flag, having signed a four-year deal at the Stadium of Light. Sunderland also hold the option to extend that stay through to 2027.
There has been a cautious excitement within the club anticipating what Bennette could become, but also an acceptance that expectations need to be tempered. Sunderland are eager to help the youngster settle in quickly and have arranged English classes for him to take. He spends four hours a week learning a new language on Wearside, after initially having been helped to settle with a Spanish-speaking aide.
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The 18-year-old is yet to start a Championship game, though that could change as a side struggles for an attacking spark without injured centre-forwards Ross Stewart and Ellis Simms. Saturday, at home to Wigan Athletic, represents his next opportunity.
Bennette comes from strong footballing stock in his home of Heredia, nine or so miles north of San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital. His father, who shares the same name, is a well-known figure after winning international honours as an explosive striker in their homeland.
Bennette Snr played for Costa Rica at the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship, coincidentally in Qatar. He scored twice but his team eventually fell short in the group stage, squeezed out by an Australia team spearheaded by Mark Viduka.
“My dad has taken me by the hand in this sport,” said Jewison Jnr in an interview with the Costa Rican Football Federation in 2020. “When people hear my name, they immediately remember it.”
There is also Bennette’s uncle, Try, who has played professional football with Saprissa. He was part of the Costa Rican side’s adventure at the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship in Japan, beaten 3-0 by Liverpool in the semi-finals before clinching a third-placed finish when they beat Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad.
It is said that everyone in the Bennette family plays football and Sunderland’s young forward was never likely to be any different. He began playing for Herediano at the age of seven, where Bennette Snr has also worked as a coach for the club’s under-17s.
“He tells me to work with humility, that football is for moments, and that no matter how high you feel you can never lower your guard,” he says of his father’s advice.
Bennette, who has left younger twin brothers Nick and Mike behind in the youth ranks of Heradiano, has been representing Costa Rica since under-15 level, winning an UNCAF title, and by the summer of 2021 he was making history when becoming the youngest player to win a senior cap aged 17 years and two months in a 0-0 draw against El Salvador.
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Enough of an impression was made for Bennette to become part of Costa Rica’s World Cup qualification last November and by this summer he was on hand to set up former Arsenal striker Joel Campbell to score the goal to beat New Zealand in a winner-takes-all play-off in Doha. Costa Rica will be back at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium for one of their three group games against Japan next month.
Sunderland were aware of Bennette by the summer and made their move in the weeks that followed, once the Costa Rican domestic season was up and running. A move to English football was concluded a week before the end of the transfer window, which Sunderland considered to be their last opportunity to sign the youngster.
Others had been watching Bennette and playing at the World Cup would have, in all likelihood, extinguished the prospect of Sunderland being his best option. It was then or never.
A transfer like this is Sunderland attempting to think big on a budget. Ever since the arrival of Juan Sartori, the Uruguayan businessman and politician, on to the club’s board in 2018 there has been talk of strengthening ties with South American football and Louis-Dreyfus spent much of last week meeting a number of club officials on the continent.
Louis-Dreyfus was happy to pose for pictures for senior figures at Uruguayan sides Nacional and Penarol over the weekend after previously posting his own image in Buenos Aires alongside Sartori and Harvey on Instagram.
Sartori, who upped his stake in Sunderland from 20 to 30 percent this summer, has made no secret of his desire to see the South American market explored. “I would love for Sunderland to have an affiliated club in Uruguay,” said Sartori in May 2021. “I studied a number of Uruguayan clubs to be able to do it, but due to lack of time I could not complete that project.”
Sunderland want to make their limited reach as a Championship club greater, planting roots in South and Central American football. They are not alone in doing so in this post-Brexit world but in signing Bennette, a youngster bound for the World Cup, the Championship club are taking a search for value to distant shores.
