Honorary title presented to one of those retiring from One Direction at benefit for Americans (8)
I believe the answer is:
emeritus
'honorary title' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'direction at benefit for americans' is the wordplay.
'direction' becomes 'E' (E is an example).
'at' says to put letters next to each other.
'benefit for' becomes 'merit' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'americans' becomes 'US' (United States).
'e'+'merit'+'us'='EMERITUS'
'presented to one of those retiring from one' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for emeritus that I've seen before include "Honorary title" , "Professor honourably retired" , "Rue items that describe person retired but retaining title" , "Title given to retired professor" , "Honourably retired but retaining title" .)