OTD: JEWISON BENNETTE BORN

Born on this day in 2004 is former Sunderland player Jewison Bennette who started out on Wearside with a lot of early promise but his career here eventually fizzled out for a variety of different reasons.

'Jewi' was born into a footballing family, with both his dad and uncle representing the Costa Rican national team. The youngster followed in his Father’s footsteps and began his career at his local team Herediano. In August 2021, he made his senior debut at just 17 years old and scored after four minutes. Talk about making a name for yourself. He continued to feature for the club throughout the season and was even called up to the Costa Rican national team.

Bennette was making a name for himself at such a young age, so a lot of South American football journalists were beginning to take notice. Some even went as far as comparing him to Neymar!

With the name Jewison Bennette starting to become familiar around South American football, Sunderland’s new found recruitment team began to take notice. Stuart Harvey was sent out to scout the wonderkid and an official bid of around £1,300,000 was accepted. Rumours about the deal began to spread across Wearside that led to a lot of fans wanting to know more about the winger.

A clip then surfaced of Jewison leaving Costa Rica and on the 25th of August 2022 he officially signed for Sunderland. The young lad didn’t speak much English, so he needed some time to settle in. He was subbed on against Watford and scored a late goal to secure a point at Vicarage Road. What a way to open your account. He continued to feature sporadically for the rest of the 2022-23 campaign, and scored his only other goal against Premier League opposition in an FA Cup replay at home to Fulham. Also during that season he scored a brace versus South Korea in an international friendly. Overall, his first year in England had gone quite well.

In the early weeks of the next season it seemed he'd continue to be a squad player who'd slowly integrate more into the side. He started in a League Cup match and then came off the bench as we thumped Southampton 5-0 at the Stadium of Light in the Championship. This game featured his most memorable moment in a Sunderland shirt as he spun around several opposition players before delivering a perfect ball to Chris Rigg in the box which his fellow youngster dispatched into the bakc of the net. Then he was absent for the rest of the campaign for reasons that weren't exactly clear and he played no more games for us for the rest of the campaign. This was considered to be a bit odd because he'd usually done well with whatever limited minutes he was given.

In January 2024 he was loaned out to Greek side Aris. However, the move didn't exactly go as planned. He only played twice before sustaining a minor injury, and then it seemed that the manager completely dismissed him for the rest of the season. Bennette said: "It was quite a complicated year, I made bad decisions, going to a club that broke my contract in every way. My agent recommended me to go there, he told me not to talk to anyone, it was a bad decision I made, but I’m learning. When I came to Aris I played two games and after that they had to pay my salary, house and car, I complained to Sunderland and they [Aris] were upset about that, then they started to put me aside and left me off the list, in the end I had a small injury that left me out of La Sele’s [Costa Rica’s national team] games."

There was to be just one more appearance from him in a Sunderland shirt for the senior team after he returned, as he made a brief cameo in an EFL Cup match. He was then moved down to the U21s and they tried to experiment moving him to left back but that didn't last very long and he basically wasn't heard from in regards to Sunderland after this. In March 2025 he moved permanently to Ukrainian outfit LNZ Cherkasy. Still aged just 21, there's certainly still time for him to forge a decent career for himself. Bennette himself has stated that one of the reasons why his Sunderland career didn't go anywhere was because he had a bad relationship with sporting director Kristjaan Speakman, although there have been rumours his attitude wasn't particularly great either.

Happy Birthday Jewi!