How Mosimane prevented Florent Ibenge’s retirement

Florent Ibenge is a highly respected and accomplished coach in African football. With a track record of success, including recently leading RS Berkane to the Caf Confederation Cup title.

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It’s no surprise that he continues to be in high demand.

Currently, he is at the helm of Al-Hilal, but despite his numerous achievements, he has considered retiring from coaching.

His friend and colleague, Pitso Mosimane was the one who begged the 61-year-old to not give up coaching and continue to bark orders from the dugout.

“I was still with AS Vita at the time and I wanted to rest. I wanted to stop coaching but Pitso called me and told me I can’t stop because we are not enough. I continued only because he called,” said Ibenge.

On taking on Sundowns on Saturday

The former Democratic of Congo national team coach is in Mzansi with Al-Hilal to take on Mamelodi Sundowns in the Caf Champions League group stage match.

Downs and Hilal are familiar with each other as they have been in the same group for the past few seasons. But with Ibenge in charge, there is a certain level of optimism from the Sudan side.

“We are in a tough group and we are underdogs. But we will try to go through,” said Ibenge.

“Sundowns are different and the coach is doing well because the system is very good. What he does when it comes to changing players but still wins, it is not something that you see every time.

“Sundowns have been doing well and congratulations to them. But my players have been saying that they want to do better this time around. We know their strengths and weaknesses and we will try to counter them by playing our football,” he added.

This is not Ibenge’s first encounter with Sundowns and he faced them when he was at the helm of AS Vita.

“It’s a different game. When we played against them when I was with Vita, we did not have any videos of them, we did not know how to access them but now we can. This time we know the kind of team that we are facing. I know that anything can happen and I will do my best to get out of this group.

Ibenge has been linked with a move to South Africa before, but he says nothing has ever materialized from his conversations with club bosses of the PSL.

“We have not had serious conversations yet but if there is something serious we will talk,” he said.