"Both Babel and Benayoun have lots of quality. They are good creative players, the kind of which our supporters will like," said Benitez.
"I've admired both players for a long time and what was also really important to me was the fact that they both wanted to come here so much. They've a strong desire to improve and win trophies
"I think we've worked really hard this summer. A lot of names have been spoken about but we've always had our targets. Yossi Benayoun was one of them and Ryan Babel was another. We are really pleased.
"Babel is a player with pace, quality, great potential for the future and great ability for the present. He's played with Ajax in Europe and for the national team and shown what a good player he is.
"He was one of the best players in the [under-21] European Championships, but we've been watching him for a very long time. We first saw him when he was 16 when I was still at Valencia. We remember a game he played against Barcelona when he broke into the Ajax side and we've followed him ever since. There were a lot of big clubs interested in him. He is a very good player now, and in the future he could be fantastic.
"It's too soon when people start trying to make comparisons between him and Thierry Henry. Henry is a fantastic, experienced player who has shown his quality for a long time, but Ryan has all the assets you need to be a top player.
"He'll probably play more as a winger but the fact that he can play in both positions means he's a very valuable asset to us. It's good because with a player like him we can always change our plan depending on how a game is going.
"The same goes for Benayoun. He can play as a winger and also as a second striker. He has a similar style to Luis Garcia and for opposition defences he will be difficult to control.
"Both will be important players for us. Ryan may need a little time to settle down in the Premiership but Yossi already has experience from his time at West Ham."