László Bénes


László Bénes is a Slovak professional footballer who plays for Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Early life

Bénes was born in Dunajská Streda to an ethnic Hungarian family.

Club career

On 6 February 2015, Bénes signed a three-year deal with Fortuna Liga side MŠK Žilina from Győr.
On 1 July 2016, he joined Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach.
On 28 January 2019, Bénes moved to 2. Bundesliga side Holstein Kiel for the second half of the season. He debuted in his first opportunity, in an away 2. Bundesliga fixture against Heidenheim, only two days after joining the club, on 30 January 2019. He played over 22 minutes, substituting Jonas Meffert in the 68th minute of the match, which concluded in a 2–2 tie. Bénes was booked with a yellow card in the 79th minute.
In his second cap for Kiel, on 3 February, against Jahn Regensburg, Bénes received the highest rating from Kiel, 7.9/10, according to the Sofascore portal.

International career

Bénes was first called up to Slovak senior national team in May 2017, when Ján Kozák called him up for a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Lithuania on 10 June 2017, just a number of days before the commencement before the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, where Bénes was expected to be one of the team leaders. During this match Bénes made his international debut, when he substituted Ondrej Duda in the 89th minute of the 2–1 victory in Vilnius. Due to number of prolonged injuries and low play time in at Mönchengladbach, Bénes made no further appearances in the national team under Kozák, who resigned in October 2018.
However, after an increased play time on loan in Kiel, Bénes made a return to the national team. On 28 May 2019, when coach Pavel Hapal called him up for a double fixture in June - a home friendly against Jordan, to which, unusually, 29 players were called-up and a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying fixture against Azerbaijan, played away on 11 June 2019. The squad was to be reduced to 23 players for the latter fixture. Hapal was the coach who brought Bénes into public eye in Slovakia, during the successful 2017 UEFA U-21 Euro campaign. Subsequently, the core of the U21 squad became known as Hapal's children, including Bénes.

Club statistics