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

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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 ...

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 ...

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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

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. 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

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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

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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

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. 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

References

External links