Former Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane says he will always be grateful to Jomo Sono and the late Stanley ‘Screamer’ Tshabalala for discovering him as a player.
Mosimane started senior football for Jomo Cosmos, before stints with Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates, Ionikos, KFC Rita Berlaar and Al Sadd.
However, he was even more successful as a coach, as he himself admitted, winning 20 trophies – including three CAF Champions League titles.
Mosimane has now admitted that he is eternally grateful to Sono and Tshabalala for discovering him when he was still playing amateur football.
“I always tell Jomo and the late Screamer Tshabalala, that ‘If it wasn’t for you guys, life would have been different for me’,” he said on SuperSport Unplugged.
“They really contributed, they saw the talent – I didn’t see nothing. They saw that and they told me that ‘You’re gonna be something in football, come!’
“And now from the township, now I live in the same neighbourhood three streets from Jomo – it’s beautiful, it’s humbling. I visit him, he visits me.
“And I never-ever want to forget the contribution he has done for me. When I received my doctorate, he was also there because he has a doctorate – he said ‘Can you believe? Us, we didn’t study but here we are being called Doctors even though we didn’t study’.
“To say that the academics has given us the support and respect in the game that we’re doing. Hence I can never be out of the schools, because the academics have supported me.”
