Florent Ibenge, the coach of DR Congo side AS Vita Club, has given his backing to Ah Ahly and former Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane.
Mosimane is South Africa's most successful club coach with five Premier Soccer League titles to his name. He also won the Caf Champions League with Mamelodi Sundowns in 2016.
And now, following his move to Egyptian giants Al Ahly two months ago, Mosimane will be leading the Red Devils into the final of the 2020 Champions League on Friday night against fierce Cairo rivals Zamalek.
Should the former Bafana Bafana coach emerge victorious tonight, he will become only the third coach to win the illustrious competition with two different clubs.
The others are Argentina-born Oscar Fullone (also a former Sundowns coach, who won it with ASEC Mimosas and Raja Casablanca) and Egyptian Mahmoud El-Gohary, who triumphed with Zamalek and Al Ahly.
Ibenge has revealed how Mosimane is proving an inspiration for African coaches to become more ambitious in working outside of their own countries.
“Pitso Mosimane is my friend, and we have attended training sessions together before," Ibenge said, as quoted by Alkhaleej Today.
"We were talking about the fact that African coaches only have the opportunity to train in their country.
“Mosimane made the difference and climbed the wall that we all strive to climb and succeeded in training outside South Africa,” Ibenge continued. “We hope to see a trainer from the Congo train in other countries in the footsteps of Mosimane.”
Portugal-born coach Manuel Jose holds the record with four titles, all at Al Ahly, who have won it on eight occasions (three more than the next most successful teams, Zamalek and TP Mazembe).
Zambian Ronald Mkhandawire, who had a brief spell with Orlando Pirates and was in charge when they won the 1995 Champions League, is the only other southern African-born coach to claim the title.
AS Vita won the tournament in 1973 while fellow DR Congo team TP Mazembe were champions in 1967, 1968, 2009, 2010 and 2015.
