Jomo Sono

Jomo Sono
Personnel
Surname	Ephraim Matsilela Sono
birthday	17th July 1955
place of birth	Johannesburg ,  South Africa
position	Midfield / storm
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1972-1976	Orlando Pirates
1977	New York Cosmos	12 0(1)
1978	Colorado Caribous	30 0(8)
1979	Atlanta Chiefs	29 0(5)
1980-1982	Toronto Blizzard	57 (22)
1982-1985	Jomo Cosmos
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1985–	Jomo Cosmos
1998	South Africa
2002	South Africa
1 Only league games are given.

Ephraim Matsilela Sono (born July 17, 1955 in Johannesburg ), better known as Jomo Sono , is a former South African football player and current coach . The nickname Jomo translates as burning or glowing spear and was an expression of Sono's leadership qualities on the field. Sono is also known as the black prince of South African football.

Personal

Jomo Sono was born in Soweto , a township in Johannesburg. His father Eric Bhamuza Sono died in a car accident in 1964 at the age of 27. Jomo was eight years old at the time. Because his mother left him a short time later, Jomo grew up with his impoverished grandparents. To pay school fees or to buy food and clothes, he sold apples and peanuts at football games or at train stations when he was ten.

Today Jomo is married and has four children. Both sons, Bamuza Sono and Matsilela Junior, play for his club Jomo Cosmos . He lives in Houghton Estate , a suburb of Johannesburg, where Nelson Mandela also lived.

Player career

At a game of the Orlando Pirates a regular player was missing and so the son of the former team captain was asked to fill in as a substitute. He quickly knew how to convince with his all-rounder qualities and became a regular player. With the team from Johannesburg he won the double in 1975 and the championship again in 1976. The following year Jomo Sono left his home country and moved to New York Cosmos in the United States. There he played in the newly opened Giants Stadium together with Franz Beckenbauer and Pelé in a team. After a year and the championship won, the South African went to the Colorado Caribous , a club that only existed for a single season. After another year with the Atlanta Chiefs , Sono moved to Toronto Blizzard . At his last career stop in North America, he played in a team with Clyde Best , Jimmy Greenhoff , Francesco Morini , Peter Lorimer and Jan Möller, among others . He then returned to his native South Africa and played for his own club until 1985 (or until 1987 as a player-coach).

At the national team level, Jomo Sono was never able to show his skills as South Africa was excluded from all competitions during his playing career due to apartheid . It remained therefore with numerous friendly matches in repeatedly recruited selection teams, which were not counted as an official international match.

Manager and coach career

Club owner and businessman

Upon his return, Sono bought Highlands Park Football Club with the money he earned and renamed it Jomo Cosmos . This happened on the basis of his one-year engagement with the start team of New York Cosmos. After the takeover, the club achieved a number of successes, such as winning the National Soccer League in 1987, the Bobsave Super Bowl in 1990, the Cola Cola Cup in 2002, 2003 and 2005 and the SAA Supa 8 in 2003. Sono also became known for his talent scouting in rural areas . Later national players like Phil Masinga or Mark Fish were discovered. Players from this talent factory formed the core of the team that won the 1996 African Cup of Nations . Jomo Sono acted as a consultant for the then head coach Clive Barker at this tournament.

Sono is also on the board of directors of the Premier Soccer League and is one of the most experienced coaches in South Africa. In addition, he has an excellent reputation as a businessman due to his business, owns several companies and sits on boards and committees.

South African national team

Shortly before the start of the African Cup of Nations in 1998 , Jomo Sono was employed as the coach of the South African national soccer team . Due to the good performance of the team and the dangerous Benni McCarthy , Bafana Bafana advanced to the final. There they were defeated by the Egyptians and their striker Hossam Hassan with 0-2. In view of the short preparation time under the new coach, this was a masterpiece. After the quarter-final elimination at the African Cup of Nations in 2002 , Sono was again appointed to the coaching staff of the national team, this time as sports director. The coach of the team at the time was Carlos Queiroz , who saw his authority being undermined by Sono and therefore resigned shortly before the 2002 World Cup . Jomo Sono took over the coaching position just before a big tournament. At the World Cup, however, the team around captain Lucas Radebe failed in the preliminary round. On October 23, 2009, he took over the job as technical director of the national team.

Titles and awards

as a player:

• South African champion: 1975 and 1976
• South African Cup Winner: 1975
• American champion : 1977

as a trainer:

• South African champion: 1987
• Bobsave Super Bowl: 1990
• Cola Cola Cup: 2002, 2003, 2005
• SAA Supa 8 : 2003

Jomo Sono also won the 2002 election of South Africa's Footballer of the Century. In 2014 he received the Order of Ikhamanga in silver.

Web links

• Short biography on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
• Statistics and pictures 1977–1982 on www.nasljerseys.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ allafrica.com: Namibia: Masters of Success Presents Jomo Sono. October 26, 2015, accessed December 29, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Safa duo jet out to sign Parreira ( Memento from January 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ List of recipients of the order 2014 (English), accessed on December 27, 2015