Brazilian coach Beto Bianchi, 59, has guided Wiliete SC of Benguela into the group stage of the CAF Champions League for the first time in the club’s history, at the expense of Mamelodi Sundowns.
For the first time in their history, Wiliete SC of Benguela will play in the group stage of the CAF Champions League, reports the Murcia daily La Verdad. The Angolan club eliminated Mamelodi Sundowns, who are thus denied a place in the group stage.
In the Wiliete SC dugout is Beto Bianchi, born in Itatiba, Brazil. The 59-year-old coach has been Angola’s national team head coach and has managed Petro de Luanda.
A coach with a spell in Spain behind him
Beto Bianchi settled in Spain in 1995, at Caravaca, after being signed for Jerez de la Frontera. As a player, he wore the shirts of Caravaca, Calasparra and Bullense before turning to coaching.
He later managed Ciudad de Murcia, Atlético Ciudad and Lorca Deportiva. The daily also recalls that he is married to a woman from Murcia and still keeps an apartment in the Murcia region.
Two spells in Angola
According to La Verdad, Bianchi is in his second stint in Angola, where he has been the national team head coach and has managed Petro de Luanda. It is in that country that he now coaches Wiliete SC.
In the newspaper’s columns, he says: “A coach should go through Africa to do a master’s.”
A first for Wiliete SC
Mamelodi Sundowns, whom La Verdad presents as the reigning CAF Champions League holders, are eliminated before the group stage by Wiliete SC. The club from Benguela thus reach this stage of the competition for the first time.
The daily highlights the historic nature of the feat for a side that had never cleared this hurdle. For Bianchi, it is another qualification on a coaching career whose Angolan chapter is his second spell in the country.