Anthony Vanden Borre hopes to play top-level football again and is working to get fit, despite reports the Belgium international had hung up his boots.
Vanden Borre departed French club Montpellier midway through last season, despite having joined them from Anderlecht on loan for the entire campaign, and then left the Belgian side by mutual consent before moving to TP Mazembe in March.
That switch also ended prematurely with Vanden Borre, who played for Belgium at the FIFA World Cup, reportedly overweight and wearied by dressing-room conflict.
The 29-year-old is now without a club and had reportedly retired, but he told Nieuwsblad: "I still dream and we'll see... I love competition."
He added: "I haven't lived like a professional sportsman. I weigh between 88 and 89 kilograms. I have already lost a kilo, but I still have to lose four to be at the level I was at Anderlecht or the World Cup in Brazil. People say I'm done, buried, but give me another two months of preparation."
Vanden Borre is working with Tresor Diowo, a former DR Congo international who spent his playing career in Belgium and is now a personal trainer.
"I've actually been looking after Anthony for a few days now and I'm going to make him a footballer again," Diowo told La Derniere Heure. "I've been coaching him every day to get him back in shape physically."
