Ephraim Matsilele Sono
OIS (born Madoda Walletjies Mkulwana, 17 July 1955), better known as Jomo Sono, is a South African
football club owner, coach and former professional footballer. He has been variously nicknamed the "Black Prince of South African Soccer", "Bra J" and "Mjomana".
Early life and football career
Sono was born in
Queenstown, South Africa. When he was eight years old, his father
Eric Bhamuza Sono, who was a
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
for the
Orlando Pirates
Orlando Pirates Football Club (often known as "The Buccaneers") is a South African professional football club based in the Houghton suburb of the city of Johannesburg and plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv ...
football team in the early 1960s, died as a result of a car crash. Soon after, his mother abandoned him. Consequently, Sono was left in the care of his ailing grandparents; as they were very poor, he had to resort to selling apples and peanuts at football games and train stations to clothe himself, buy food for his grandparents and pay school fees. Both his grandparents were born in the then
Northern Transvaal
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
at
Valdezia
Valdezia is a sprawling rural settlement situated at the foothills of the Soutpansberg mountain range in Louis Trichardt, Limpopo Province, South Africa. It was formerly known as Albasini before Swiss Missionaries renamed it Valdezia in 1875. The ...
village outside
Makhado
Makhado (also: Makhato or Makgato, c.1839 – 3 September 1895) was a 19th-century chief (or ''khosi'') in the Singo (or Vhasenzi) dynasty of the Vendas. They ruled over the Dzanani "district" of the Zoutpansberg region of South Africa. He was t ...
in
Limpopo Province
Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
.
[Who´s Who SA](_blank)
Sono's football career had an unusual beginning; during a match that he attended one of the Orlando Pirates’ regular players was absent and Sono was requested to stand in for him. He soon gained fame for his all-round ability, dribbling and accurate passing skills. It was during this time that he was given the nickname of ''Jomo'' (which means "burning spear") by an Orlando Pirates fan, who saw in him the same leadership qualities as those of
Jomo Kenyatta, the then president of
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
.
After he had accomplished everything that he set out to do at Orlando Pirates, Sono went to the United States of America, where, in 1977, he played for the
New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to
* New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada)
* New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...
, where one of his team-mates was the legendary player
Pelé. In 1978, he moved to the
Colorado Caribous
The Caribous of Colorado were an American soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) during the 1978 season. The team was based in Denver, Colorado and played their home games at Mile High Stadium. After the seaso ...
. At the end of the season, the Caribous moved to become the
Atlanta Chiefs where Sono played with a fellow South African footballer, Patrick "Ace" Ntsoelengoe. Sono completed his stint in North America playing for the
Toronto Blizzard, playing three summers, 1980 through 1982.
Sono also taught and gave demonstrations at
Clemson University Soccer Camp for youths.
Sono spent time with Portuguese club
Sporting Lisbon
Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...
and Italian club
Juventus, but was unable to obtain work permits for permanent contracts.
Club owner and coach
After his football career in the USA ended, Sono returned to South Africa, where he purchased the
Highlands Park club in Johannesburg in 1982, renaming it
Jomo Cosmos in honour of his old team.
Under his ownership, the club went on to achieve several successes: it won the
National Soccer League in 1987, the
Bobsave Super Bowl in 1990, the
Cola Cola Cup in 2002 and the
Super Eight
Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to:
Film
* Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965
* Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format
* ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction fi ...
in 2003.
Sono has also taken a leading role in discovering and developing new football talent, especially from rural areas. Some of the players whom Sono recruited and then went on to play for the
South African national team and European clubs include
Philemon Masinga
Philemon Raul Masinga (28 June 1969 – 13 January 2019) was a South African professional footballer and manager who played as a striker from 1990 to 2002.
He played in the English Premier League for Leeds United, and Italian Serie A for Saler ...
,
Helman Mkhalele
Helman Nkosiyethu Mkhalele (born 20 October 1969) is a South African former soccer player who played as a midfielder. He was the part of the Orlando Pirates squad that won the 1994 National Soccer League and 1995 African Cup of Champions Club ...
,
Sizwe Motaung and
Mark Fish
Mark Anthony Fish (born 14 March 1974) is a retired South African footballer who played as a defender.
Club career
Born in Cape Town, Fish started his career in his native South Africa under the guidance of renowned coach Steve Coetsee, play ...
. Indeed, his recruits formed the core of the South African squad that won the
1996 African Nations Cup
The 1996 African Cup of Nations was the 20th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by South Africa, who replaced original hosts Kenya. The field expanded for the first time to 16 teams, ...
; Sono was also a technical advisor to the team's head coach
Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...
during the tournament.
In 1998, Sono was appointed as caretaker coach of the ''Bafana Bafana'' just before the
African Nations Cup
The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...
tournament in
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to ...
in the place of Clive Barker, who had been sacked just before the event. Under Sono, the team reached the final of the tournament, where they lost to Egypt. Taking the short time that he had to prepare with the team into account, it was considered a remarkable feat.
After a disappointing performance by the South African national squad during the
2002 African Nations Cup
The 2002 African Cup of Nations was the 23rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa ( CAF). It was hosted by Mali. Just like in 2000, the field of sixteen teams was split into four groups of four. Ca ...
in Mali, Sono was again appointed a technical director to the team. However, the head coach of the team at that time,
Carlos Queiróz, felt that his position was being undermined by this appointment and resigned. Sono was again appointed as caretaker coach, this time for the
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...
in South Korea and Japan.
During the World Cup, the South African squad did not progress beyond the first round; however, they did score five goals and achieved one win, one draw and a 3–2 loss against pre-tournament favourites
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
. The South African captain,
Lucas Radebe
Lucas Valeriu Ntuba Radebe OIS (born 12 April 1969) is a South African former professional footballer who played as a centre back.
He began playing in South Africa with Kaizer Chiefs, before transferring to Leeds United, where he played 256 ...
, credited Sono with much of the team's performance, saying that he had instilled a good spirit within the team and that he had ensured a very positive atmosphere among the squad.
Sono is the longest-serving coach in the South African Premier League and also sits on the board of the Premier Soccer League. He has also built up a reputation as a successful businessman; in addition to making a substantial profit by developing players and selling them to European teams, he also owns a number of businesses and is a chairman of numerous companies. On 22 October 2009 it was announced that he had returned to the
South African Football Association, and one day later on 23 October 2009 he took the job as Technical Director.
Honours
Sono was voted 49th in the
Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004.
In December 2016, Sono received two doctorates from the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
and the
University of Dubai for his contribution to football and business. Upon receiving the two doctorates he said: "To me this is the greatest achievement. People say it’s from outside
he doctorates I don’t think it’s from outside. I think it’s from the world because the University of London is one of the biggest and the commonwealth university is one of the biggest."
Personal life
He is married and has four children, including the
South Africa national football team member
Bamuza Sono, and his second son Matsilela Junior (*22 June 1992) plays in the reserve of
Jomo Cosmos.
Development Player Profiles
See also
*List of African association football families
This is a list of association football (soccer) families. The countries are listed according to the national teams of the senior family member if the other family member played for a different country.
A Algeria
* Farès Bahlouli, Mohamed B ...
References
External links
Jomo Cosmos Soccer Club Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sono, Jomo
1955 births
Living people
2002 FIFA World Cup managers
Atlanta Chiefs players
Colorado Caribous players
Expatriate soccer players in Canada
Expatriate soccer players in the United States
Association football forwards
New York Cosmos players
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players
Orlando Pirates F.C. players
Sportspeople from Soweto
South African expatriate soccer players
South African expatriate sportspeople in Canada
South African expatriate sportspeople in the United States
South African soccer managers
South African soccer players
Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players
South Africa national soccer team managers
Jomo Cosmos F.C.
Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga
1998 African Cup of Nations managers
Jomo Cosmos F.C. managers