Argentine goalkeeper Benitez, a self-professed quasi-defender, has joined Palace with a view to back up, and potentially challenge, Dean Henderson.
There is little doubt that Crystal Palace's Dean Henderson is the rightful holder of the number one shirt at Selhurst Park, but the Eagles' recent acquisition of Walter Benitez on a free transfer from PSV Eindhoven remains a smart piece of business regardless.
The Argentine goalkeeper had a decorated track record with the Dutch club. He was an ever-present in PSV's league campaign as they captured the title, finishing a point clear of Ajax, and in previous seasons won the KNVB Cup (2022-23) and the Johan Cruyff Shield (2023 and 2024). He brings abundant experience at the highest level, including in European football - which his new goalkeeping counterpart Dean Henderson, and many of his other new teammates, are yet to experience in a domestic club context.
Benitez started all but one of PSV's 12 Champions League games last season, and is a self-professed ‘modern goalkeeper’. Speaking to The Athletic in 2023, the Argentine explained that '[the position has] evolved a lot, modern goalkeepers have to be top shot-stoppers but also be able to play with their feet.
'You have to be prepared to make more… ‘difficult’ decisions, to help the team,” Benitez says, “to create those numerical superiorities, as we call them — stepping up and becoming an extra defender when we have the ball under control.
Experience isn't helpful when it resides solely on paper. With Palace's entry into European football this coming season - facilitated by John Textor's sale of his shares in Palace to former US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Woody Johnson - Benitez is a man who acutely understands the mental pressures, but also huge opportunities, that come with the European stage.
‘Our position is probably more mental than it is physical,’ Benitez said. 'Obviously it’s important to be quick, have good reflexes, but a lot of the time the game passes by in your head. You have to be there for 90 to 100 minutes, concentrating in the background, so you’re ready for that one shot on goal that could change the entire game.
‘All I try to do is to think positively and enjoy the moment: ‘I’m not going to concede today, it’s going be a good game’. Stimulating that positive energy and always thinking about helping the team helps me concentrate, and that’s beneficial for everything a goalkeeper does.
Benitez brings a slightly different profile to the Palace goalkeeper department compared to Dean Henderson, who one might argue is a slightly more 'traditional goalkeeper'. Remi Matthews currently occupies the third choice spot, but it is more likely that Benitez will challenge the former than the spot of the latter.
Palace also have two highly rated young shot-stoppers, more akin to Benitez's technical profile, in Owen Goodman and Joe Whitworth. Both are highly rated, and have also stated their intention to fight for the starting spot at the club, in an exclusive interview with Goalkeeper.com. But they are young - both 21 - and at a time when Palace have a magnificent opportunity to push upwards and escape the grasp of 12th-place syndrome, Palace arguably need more experienced heads in the building. League Two promotion-winning goalkeeper Goodman is likely to head back out on loan to Huddersfield Town in League One. Joe Whitworth has been rumoured to be wanted for a second time by his former loan club Exeter City.
The thing is, Crystal Palace have a bit of a track record with signing European goalkeepers heading into their twilight years. One only has to gaze back to the 2016/17 season to recall the club's capture of Steve Mandanda, who, like Benitez, was 32 and signing on a free transfer. In that case, the move never worked out, with Mandanda only making 10 appearances all season and was kept out of the team by Wayne Hennessey.
Mandanda didn't mince his words upon leaving London, telling a French outlet that 'Leaving Crystal Palace? Yes, it was hell. At one point, I thought the deal would collapse. I had to kiss goodbye to a lot of money'.
A year or so later, in 2018, then-manager Roy Hodgson brought Spaniard Vincente Guaita in on a free transfer from Getafe. His spell at Selhurst was markedly more successful than that of Mandanda, with Guaita going on to make nearly 150 appearances for the south London club. He finally displaced Hennessey from the starting spot, and in 2021 won Palace's Player of the Season award.
You'd be hard pressed to find a Crystal Palace fan who thought poorly of Guaita's performances on the pitch. Indeed, The Athletic's Crystal Palace correspondent Matt Woosnam summarised succinctly in 2023; ‘Guaita was ’dependable, consistently impressive and adored by the supporters.'
‘His performances have been a significant factor in achieving that acceptance, but he has warmed the hearts of fans in much the same way as predecessor Julian Speroni did, or for a shorter time, the erratic tracksuit bottom-donning Gabor Kiraly', Woosnam continued.
Scott Dann, Roy Hodgson, and goalkeeper coach Dean Kiely all shared similar sentiments on their then-Spanish number one. But Guaita's departure from the club and antics off it confused the Selhurst Park faithful. At the end of the 2022/23 season, Sam Johnstone stepped into the side after Guaita sustained a calf injury, and the Spaniard failed to displace him. By the August of 2023, he was engaged in a Twitter spat with the club social media account which foreshadowed his departure from the club back to Spain, to join Celta Vigo.
The score became 1-1 in terms of Palace's mid-2010s goalkeeper recruits on free transfers from Europe.
‘I’m hoping that it’s more like Guaita and less like Mandanda!’ said Matt Watts from the Team Called Palace podcast, speaking to Goalkeeper.com.
‘We were really excited when we signed the Frenchman but, for one reason or another, it just didn’t work. As for Vinny, he was an excellent signing. He was a worthy successor to the legendary Julian Speroni - even if his stay in South London ended on a sour note.’
Benitez may have played much of his senior football in France and the Netherlands, but he hails from Argentina. Of course, any South American goalkeeper that wanders near the goalpost at Selhurst Park either now or in future will suffer from the comparison that will inevitably be made between them and Palace legend Speroni.
In many ways, Speroni encapsulated all that a great goalkeeper is in ability and persona. He may not have reached the ‘punditry heights' of being named amongst the world's best (indeed, most of his years in British football were spent in Scottish football and then the English Championship, though Serie A giants Inter Milan were linked with a move for Speroni in 2003), but he was iconic.
The highest capped Crystal Palace goalkeeper in history, an all-round nice guy, by all accounts, and defiant of his somewhat smaller stature for a Premier League goalkeeper at the time (around 6 feet tall) with an incredible agility and athleticism around the goal, Speroni left a mark on Palace that never rubbed off in the goalkeeping department.
So Benitez has a curious track record to follow in terms of Crystal Palace's previous goalkeeping recruits. He becomes the third free transfer of a certain age and pedigree from a European club in between the sticks in recent years, and follows a compatriot in Julian Speroni who imprinted his legacy upon the Palace faithful over a monumental 15-year contribution to the club.
Dean Henderson's solidification as number one at Selhurst Park appears to promise him a role that, through a mix of unfortunately-timed injuries and a long-standing Mancunian contractual grip that seemed reluctant to either instill him as number one at Old Trafford or let him leave permanently, he has not yet played in an experienced career. His FA Cup exploits at Wembley, denying Omar Marmoush's penalty by diving full stretch to his right amongst a plethora of other important stops, wrote him into Palace history.
In a way, Benitez's move to the Premier League side seems a little unusual. With Henderson seemingly so secure in the starting spot, most agree that Benitez will have to content himself with a backup role for the time being at least. At 32, he still has plenty left in the tank, and has come off the back of a trophy-winning season with PSV, begging the question: was there nobody who needed an out and out number one recruit this summer?
‘I think Palace fans are generally quite excited that we’ve been able to bring in a goalkeeper of Benitez’s pedigree - especially on a free transfer’, Watts continues.
'With Dean Henderson and Remi Matthews already at the club, it also means that we can send the likes of Joe Whitworth and Owen Goodman out on loan again, which is vital for their development. Given Dean Henderson’s performances last season in both the Premier League and, of course, the FA Cup, it’s going to be difficult for Walter to take the gloves off him.
‘But, with Europe on the horizon, it’s really important for us to have two quality keepers. Initially, I think Benitez will have to settle for playing in the League Cup and a little bit in the Europa League but, if he plays well and Deano drops off, then it’s all to play for.’
Whether Benitez was really on top form at PSV last year, despite their title win, is a legitimate debate amongst the Eredivisie club's fans. Moreover, the signing of 29 year old Nick Olij from Sparta Rotterdam would have brought competition for Benitez, reportedly on lower wages than the Argentine commanded.
Nonetheless, a goalkeeper doesn't play consistently in some of Europe's top years for nearly a decade, three of which in a team that won back-to-back league titles since their arrival, if they aren't bringing serious pedigree to the defensive unit. Peter Schmeichel once said of the Raya/Ramsdale usurpation at Arsenal that no good ever came of having two number ones in a squad, but that does appear to be what Benitez brings on paper. In practice, one wonders whether the story will be different.
Henderson will be pushed - there is no doubt about that - but that is the life of a number one. Walter Benitez has the opportunity to make it 2-1 to side success in terms of Crystal Palace's recruitment of experienced goalkeepers in their early 30s on frees from Europe. It seems a curious repetition of history - and Henderson will have to be on his toes.
