Florent Ibenge is a respected and successful coach in African football. With a record of success, including RS Berkane who recently won the Caf Confederation Cup.
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No wonder he continues to be in high demand.
Currently, he is the leader of Al-Hilal, but despite his many achievements, he has considered retiring from coaching.
His friend and colleague, Pitso Mosimane is the one who urged the 61-year-old not to give up coaching and continue to give orders from the dugout.
“I was still with AS Vita at that time and I wanted to take a break. I wanted to stop coaching but Pitso called me and said I can’t stop because I don’t have enough. I continued only because he called,” Ibenge said.
When taking on Sundowns there
The former Democratic Congo national team coach is in Mzansi with Al-Hilal to take on Mamelodi Sundowns in their Caf Champions League group stage match.
Downs and Hilal are familiar with each other because 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 Sudanese side.
“We are in a difficult group and we are underdogs. But we will try to get through,” said Ibenge.
“Sundowns are different and the coaches are good because the system is very good. What they do when they change players and still win, that’s not something you see every time.
“Sundowns have been good and congratulations to them. But my players have said that they want to do better this time. We know their strengths and weaknesses and we will try to fight them by playing football,” he said.
This is not Ibenge’s first encounter with Sundowns and he faced it when he was in charge of AS Vita.
“It’s a different game. When we played against them when I was with Vita, we didn’t have video, we didn’t know how to access it, but now we can. This time we know what kind of team we are facing. I know anything can happen and I will try to get out of this group.
Ibenge has been linked with a move to South Africa before, but says nothing has materialized from his talks with the PSL club boss.
“We haven’t had a serious conversation but if something serious happens, we will talk,” he said.