Where Christian Benteke has ended up after Coventry City, Middlesbrough transfer pleas | OneFootball

The veteran Belgian striker is no longer a free agent after leaving MLS outfit DC United in December

FLW’s Middlesbrough and Coventry City Fan Pundits urged their respective clubs to sign Christian Benteke last month, but the 35-year-old is winding down his career far away from English football.

The former Aston Villa, Liverpool and Crystal Palace striker became available as a free agent following the expiration of his contract with MLS side DC United, having spent the previous three seasons in the United States.

As part of FLW's 'Terrace Talk' series, a supporter from each aforementioned club gave reasons as to why they should’ve given the experienced frontman a contract.

Why Middlesbrough and Coventry City were urged to sign Christian Benteke

The reality of Benteke's situation, whilst one that captured the imagination of our Fan Pundits, obviously never materialised into a genuine pursuit from either Middlesbrough or Coventry City - but it’s worth taking a look at why the two supporters wanted to sign him.

Liam Day, our Boro Fan Pundit, made a strong case for the Teesside club to make a move for Benteke, whilst Chris Deez similarly urged Coventry City to pursue the Belgian international.

Day claimed that Benteke would've been an "interesting option" in the short-term for Boro, and that he'd have offered them "something very, very different".

Although Day did say that he didn't see the club's Head of Football, Kieran Scott, "going for it", Tommy Conway, David Strelec and even Kaly Sene are still struggling to score consistently. Both Conway and Strelec last found the back of the net against Queens Park Rangers on the 13th December, whilst Sene hasn't scored since September.

Ultimately, though, even Kim Hellberg told TeessideLive that he refuses to make any transfer demands as a manager - so an actual swoop for Benteke would've been out of the question.

Moving on to the Sky Blues, Deez said that he didn’t care what it took for them to sign Benteke, but it needed to happen.

The Coventry fan was adamant that the Belgian was still "more than capable of ripping up the Championship", but had concerns about his wages - as he was the 11th-highest paid player in the MLS last year, as per The Athletic.

Unlike Boro's strikers, Coventry's have had absolutely no problem banging the league goals in though - with Haji Wright on eight strikes and Ellis Simms and Brandon Thomas Asante on nine and ten. This places each of them in the club's top-three for Championship goals so far.

City look set to sign players in other positions now as well, and are reportedly battling both Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion for Sunderland defender Luke O'Nien.

So, who did Benteke end up signing for...

Where Christian Benteke has ended up after Middlesbrough and Coventry City transfer shouts

Benteke has ended up moving to the UAE Pro League, where he joined Al-Wahda on New Year's Day. The Abu-Dhabi based club released an official statement on X confirming the signing, which obviously means the qualms both fans had about him coming back to England came true.

Day obviously didn’t think the deal was highly realistic for Middlesbrough, and even though Deez wanted Coventry to try their hardest - you can imagine the amount of money Benteke is on now is a lot more than what the Sky Blues would’ve maybe offered him anyway.

For a player who scored 49 goals in 100 games for DC United, and 96 across 320 matches in England, there's no doubt that Benteke would've been an entertaining watch for either Boro or Coventry if he wanted to play in the Championship for the first time in his career, but it was not meant to be.