LOUISVILLE CITY FC
Thabane Sutu’s Winding,
Winning Path
The path to American second division soccer for players and coaches alike
is usually a long and winding one. That goes tenfold for Thabane Sutu, the
accomplished yet unassuming goalkeeper coach for Louisville City FC.
BY KEVIN KERNEN | PHOTOS COURTESY EM DASH PHOTOGRAPHY
A native of Lesotho, a country of two million
and about the size of Maryland, Thabane Sutu
comes from modest South Africa beginnings.
One of two sons to a nurse and civil servant, he
had his fair share of chores to do around the house
before he could play soccer in the streets after
school days, something that all boys would join
in on. While he had a comparatively comfortable
34 EXTOL SPORTS / JANUARY 2018
childhood, Sutu didn’t start playing organized
soccer until he was spotted by South African
coaching legend and then-Lesotho National
coach April “Styles” Phumo at age 15, when the
coach founded an amateur team, Arsenal FC, in
Lesotho’s capital, Maseru.
After school they would train in the national
stadium; it was a side project for Phumo. It was
here Sutu cultivated a dream to go on and play
professionally, not something many Lesotho
players had the opportunity to do. His Arsenal
team had to begin play at the third and bottom
rung of the completely amateur soccer pyramid
in Lesotho before quickly gaining promotion to
the premier A Division in 1988.
While cutting a swath through the ranks of