• Benni McCarthy dismissed rumours linking him to Mamelodi Sundowns, clarifying that his meeting with Flemming Berg was a chance encounter at the airport.
• He emphasised respect for Sundowns’ current coaching staff, calling them experienced and capable, and urged people not to speculate.

Benni McCarthy has clarified that his meeting with Mamelodi Sundowns technical director Flemming Berg was purely coincidental, and that all talks linking him to the Mamelodi Sundowns coaching job are mere rumours.

“I have not spoken to Sundowns. There have been rumours, but the rumours were there when Chiefs had no coach, saying, ‘Benni is coming to Chiefs’,” the former Bafana Bafana international said per Times Live.

“You know, rumours are rumours — don’t listen to the rumours. But no, I have not spoken to Sundowns. There has been no dialogue between me and them. So that’s the first thing out of the way.”

The 47-year-old added that he believes Manqoba Mngqithi and the rest of the Masandawana coaching staff are doing a great job and that it is unfair to them to spread these rumours.

“They’ve got coaches there with experience, so we have to give those coaches the respect they deserve.

“Stop putting them under pressure unnecessarily by creating me going anywhere, because those coaches have to do their job. They are top coaches, good coaches, people I respect a lot. So I want them to work peacefully.

“Don’t step on anyone’s toes. There’s no me going to Sundowns — it’s absolutely false.”

In the meeting, he said it was just a coincidental airport run-in.

“It was just, you bump into someone at the airport. So it was not even a meeting. It was just, you travel somewhere and you see someone in an airport and you’re like, ‘Hey, how’s it going? Blah, blah, blah’.”

“That was the chat. He was like, ‘Ah, I remember you from when you played at Porto’, and I don’t even think we mentioned Sundowns once.

“That’s how I know there was no interest from his side or Sundowns’ side because when you chat and don’t even talk about what’s happening at your club, [that happens] because there’s no interest — they’ve got the coaches they have, so happy days for them.”

Pictured above: Benni McCarthy.

Source: @bennimccarthy17