For years now, watching D.C. United has felt less like watching a competitive soccer team and more like a test of endurance; season after season of rebuilds, tactical resets, and unfinished visions. And at the center of it all stood one unmistakable figure, shoulders squared beneath the weight of an entire attack: Christian Benteke.

Like the Atlas of myth, Benteke did not simply lead DC United’s attack, he held it up.

From the moment he arrived in the summer of 2022, the game plan became blunt and unavoidable: get the ball to Benteke and let him fight. Long balls, early crosses, second balls in the box. Everything flowed through the Belgian’s hulking 6 foot 3 inch frame. And remarkably, even as the structure around him wobbled, he produced at an elite level. His 23 goal Golden Boot season remains one of the most extraordinary individual achievements in club history, not just because of the raw total, but because of how alone he was in producing it.

During that 2024 season, Benteke accounted for a massive share of DC’s total goals (He scored 44% of the team’s goals). The next highest DCU attacker, Gabriel Pirani, was well behind him on 6 goals. Across multiple seasons, the pattern repeated: Benteke atop the scoring charts by a wide margin, flanked by rotating supporting casts struggling to reach even mid-single digit goal totals (Benteke is the only DC United player to hit double digits since Taxiarchis Fountas in 2022). The attack did not spread responsibility. They concentrated it almost entirely on one man.

Defenses knew it. DC’s opponents built entire game plans around neutralizing him. Double teaming. Big, physical center backs. Aerial wrestling matches from the opening whistle. It didn’t matter. Benteke still won his duels. He was in the 99th percentile in terms of aerial duals won and won the most number of aerial battles in all three full seasons he was in the league (peaking at 310 duals won in 2024). He rose above the crowds. He turned desperate service into real danger. Even when DC struggled to string together five passes, they could still find their striker and, with him, a chance.

And that is what defined this era of DC United soccer.

Other franchises rebuild by distributing risk. DC rebuilt by placing it all on Benteke’s back.

Through coaching changes, roster churn, and long stretches without momentum, Benteke remained the constant. He played in losing seasons where hope evaporated by August. He played through tactical uncertainty. He played in front of crowds desperate for anything to hold onto. And night after night, he tried to give them at least one reason to stand: a flicked header, a thunderous finish, a moment of dominance that cut through the fatigue of another lost year.

His professionalism never wavered. There were no public complaints. No visible disengagement. The burden was heavy, but he carried it anyway.

Benteke will not be remembered in Washington for playoff runs or silverware. His legacy is heavier than that. He will be remembered as the striker who shouldered an impossible workload and still delivered. The rare designated player who lived up to his status even when the broader project failed him. In an era when the vision was often unclear, cycling through 5 full time and interim coaches, Benteke’s role never was never unclear. It was to win his battles, score the goals, and give the fans something to believe in.

Now, as he departs the Black-and-Red, DC United does not just lose a goal scorer. It loses its captain. It loses the man who held its attack together through some of the most fragile seasons in team history. The team will try to redistribute the weight. It will try to move more freely without a singular focal point.

But for years, one man carried the weight of the world. And that alone secures Christian Benteke’s place in DC United history.

Christian Benteke by the Numbers (via DC United)