Thabo Mngomeni (born 24 June 1969,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

) is a South African former

Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

. After starting his professional career at

Cape Town Spurs A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. T ...

and having a brief spell at

Manning Rangers Manning Rangers is a now defunct South African football club based in Durban. The side is best remembered as the Champions of the Inaugural season of South Africa's Premier Soccer League. History The club was founded in 1928 by GR Naidoo who, ...

, Mngomeni became a household name in South Africa playing for Bush Bucks and

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 ...

. He also had a brief spell at Hellenic before retirement. He played for

South Africa national soccer team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Bafana Bafana (The Boy ...

and was a participant at 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 ...

.Thabo Mngomeni Statistics
FIFA. Retrieved 22 January 2010.

Cape Town Spurs

He was recruited by former Kaizer Chiefs,

and Hellenic player,

Sergio Dos Santos Sergio dos Santos (born 1950) is a retired South African footballer who played as a midfielder for Hellenic, Cape Town Spurs and Kaizer Chiefs. He also managed Kaizer Chiefs for a spell in the mid-1990s. Early life He was born to Portuguese ...

from an Eastern Cape amateur team, Tembu Royals. He left Spurs after two loan deals claiming that his coach, Mich D'Avray "hated him with a passion and he didn't know why".

Umtata Bush Bucks

He first heard of the doping test in 1996 when he was informed by club officials who were aware that he smoked marijuana. Since Mngomeni was a

rastafarian Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control ...

he only smoked marijuana during pre-season.

Orlando Pirates

Mngomeni would play for Orlando Pirates between 1998 and 2002 and become the club captain, leading them to the league title in 2001. It was during this period that he also became a regular at national level, and was one of very few locally-based players in the South African squad during that period.

International career

He made his debut for the national football side at 29 in a 1–0 victory over

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

in 1998. All in all he played for the national team on 38 occasions, scoring six goals. He won the 2001 CAF Goal of the Year, for his bicycle kick against Congo.

Retirement

After joining Hellenic his career came to an end and he retired because of a knee injury at the age of 33.

After retirement

He has coached at a number of Vodacom League teams in

. He completed his SAFA Level 2 coaching course. In 2022, he launched the

Thabo Mngomeni Foundation Thabo (Τhα'βω) is a male and female African given name. It is short for "Lethabo" meaning "Happiness" or "Joy". It is a common name for South African men and women. It is most used in seSotho, Setswana and Sepedi r Northern Sothoand by some o ...

, and has been coaching in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape province.

Personal life

He is the older brother of

Thando Mngomeni Thando Mngomeni (born 11 February 1983 in Cape Town, Western Cape) is a South African football (soccer) midfielder. Thando is a pure example of South Africa's unorthodox style of play. He hails from Gugulethu on the Cape Flats and is the you ...

. He is married and has five daughters. He lives in

Eerste River The Eerste River, located in the Western Cape, South Africa, rises on Dwarsberg 60 km east of Cape Town at the head of Jonkershoek. The Eerste River catchment covers the eastern part of the Cape Flats lying to the west of the Hottentots Ho ...

Career statistics

International goals

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mngomeni, Thabo 1969 births Living people South African Rastafarians South African soccer players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Bush Bucks F.C. players Association football midfielders Sportspeople from Cape Town Manning Rangers F.C. players Hellenic F.C. players South Africa international soccer players