Sono, Jomo

Club

Sono was born in East Orlando in Soweto , near Johannesburg . When he was eight years old, his father Eric Sono , who was an Orlando Pyrets midfielder in the early 1960s, died in a car accident. Shortly after his mother left him ^[1] . Sono was left in the care of his feeble grandparents. Since they were very poor, he had to resort to selling apples and nuts at football games and at train stations to earn extra money, buy food for his grandparents and pay for his tuition.

The beginning of Sono’s football career was unusual: he went on the field when one of the regular Orlando Pirates players was absent. Soon he gained fame thanks to dribbling and the skill of accurate passes. At that time, he received the nickname Jomo (which means "flaming spear") from Orlando fans, who saw him as having the same leadership qualities as Jomo Kenyatt , who was then President of Kenya .

After he achieved everything he intended to do at the Pirates, Sono went to the USA . In 1977, he played for New York Cosmos , where the legendary player Pele was one of his teammates. The following year, he moved to the Colorado Caribus . At the end of the season, he became a player in the Atlanta Chiefs club, where Sono performed with another South African star of the time, Kaiser Motown . Sono completed his performance in North America , playing for the Toronto Blizzard from 1980 to 1982.

Coaching

After completing his football career in the United States, Sono returned to South Africa and acquired the Highlands Park club in 1982 and later renamed it Jomo Cosmos .

During his tenure, the club won various tournaments: the National Football League in 1987, the Coca-Cola Cup in 2002, the Super Eight in 2003, and also ended up among the top teams in the Higher Football League for a long time.

Sono took the lead in finding and developing new football talents, mainly from the countryside. Some of the players he scored played for the South African national team and played for European clubs such as Phil Masinga , Helman Mkalele , Sisve Motaung and Mark Fish . His recruits formed the core of the South African team that won the 1996 African Cup of Nations , while Sono was then the technical adviser to head coach, Clive Barker , during the tournament.

In 1998, he was appointed acting coach of the Republic of South Africa shortly before the 1998 African Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso . Under the leadership of Sono, the team reached the final , where they lost to the Egyptian national team with a score of 0: 2.

Following the disappointing performance of the team at the African Cup of Nations 2002 in Mali, Sono was again appointed technical director of the team. Head coach Carlos Keirosh later resigned and Jomo was reappointed as acting coach before the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan .

During the “mundial” the South African team was not able to pass the group stage, but managed to score 5 goals, achieve victory over Slovenia , draw with Paraguay and at least lose to one of the favorites of the championship - Spain . The captain of the national team, Lucas Radebe , said that Sono instilled a good spirit within the team and provided a very positive atmosphere during the World Cup ^[2] .

Sono is the longest-running coach in the South African Premier League and is also a member of the board of the South African Premier League. He also built up a reputation as a successful businessman, owns a number of enterprises and is the chairman of many companies. On October 22, 2009, it was announced that he had returned to the South Africa Football Association . The next day, he took over as technical director.

Married and has 4 children.

• Club site "Jomo Cosmos" (English)
• Statistics (eng.)