South African football icon Jomo Sono during a Nedbank Cup press conference. Image: BackpagePix.
‘Jomo Sono is my footballing father’ – Former Pirates star
Somebody please send this article to make Jomo Sono’s day. A former Orlando Pirates star has credited his career to the legend.
South African football icon Jomo Sono during a Nedbank Cup press conference. Image: BackpagePix.
Remember Tebogo Tlolane at Orlando Pirates? The Golden Arrows attacker says Jomo Sono is the reason he has a career today.
JOMO SONO IS MY FOOTBALLING FATHER SAYS FORMER ORLANDO PIRATES STAR
Tlolane once faced an uncertain future in his life and football career. The Johannesburg-born star needed to leave the second division to play in the first division. Playing at Pirates’ Yebo Yes feeder team, Tlolane faced Jomo Cosmos in a friendly match.
It was the same game where the 29-year-old caught Sono’s eye within 10 minutes. Tlolane ended up signing for Cosmos before later moving to Chippa United and eventually Pirates.
“To get signed by Jomo Cosmos, it was the big man himself who [scouted] me,” Tlolane told FARPost’s Sinethemba Sithole.
“I remember we played a friendly, and at that time, I had left Yebo Yes, but they still had my clearance. I thought it was time to step out of my comfort zone and search for…I felt I needed to play NFD football and from NFD to PSL football, “ added Tlolane, who has scored one goal in 11 appearances for Arrows this team.
“At that time, I had an agent, he and different agents used to organise 12 or 15 guys to play friendlies against different teams,” the fomer Pirates winger added.
“Then we played Jomo Cosmos but the MDC side. We gave them a tough game but we lost and they were like, ‘Nope, you guys are good enough to play against the first team’.
“And at that time, Jomo was still in the PSL, and we played their first team. I think it took about 10 minutes for Jomo to see me. He called someone to ask me how old I was, I told them.
Tebogo Tlolane training with Orlando Pirates at the Rand Stadium. Image: @Mtimande_01/ X.
“And then the following day, I was told to start training with Cosmos and that’s how it happened.
“Myself and bra J, he’s my footballing father and I always mention it to him, he’s one person that it took 10 minutes to be like, ‘I want that boy’.
“And that 10 minutes changed my life.
“The relationship I have with him goes beyond just me being his former player but me looking at him and being like you took 10 minutes to see something that maybe other people weren’t seeing in 90 minutes, in five days or in 100 days,” the former Pirates attacker concluded.
NEXT GAME
Meanwhile, Tlolane and his Arrows teammates will be back in action on Sunday, 31 March. They face Richards Bay at the Mpumalanga Stadium in Hammersdale, KwaZulu Natal.
