Johannesburg - All Black great Jonah Lomu will live on in the minds of rugby fans around the world after his unexpected death on Wednesday from a kidney disease.
However, what many people will be less familiar with outside of New Zealand is that he was also a business man who ran his own company, and spent seven years in banking, having successfully shrugged off an inauspicious start to life.
Lomu, who was worth $20 million when he died, will forever be remembered as rugby’s first global superstar after shooting to international fame at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, a year after becoming the youngest ever All Black at the age of 19 years and 45 days, reports AFP.
At his peak, the 1.96m Lomu weighed 120kg and could cover 100m in 10.8 seconds, providing a combination of speed and power that terrorised opponents, the wire service notes.
Yet, long before his rugby days were over, Lomu took his passion for the sport to the podium and became a motivational speaker and CEO of a company called Stylez Limited.
Stylez, which has Lomu as its only director, was founded in 1996 and Lomu’s LinkedIn profile shows he became CEO of the company the following February. Not much is known about Stylez, as it does not seem to have a website, but Lomu’s other career history on LinkedIn shows he also coached, and spent seven years in banking.
In 2002, Lomu had a run-in with New Zealand TV station, TV3, after the broadcaster used a photo of him and two other All Black players to promote its free-to-air coverage of the All Blacks’ 2002 Rugby Campaign.
That led to a court case against the station by Lomu and his management company ,Stylez, which was settled in the middle of 2004. The bulk of terms of the settlement were confidential, but, according to celebritynetworth123.com, Lomu was worth $20 million as of this year.
Lomu achieved his fame and fortune despite coming from an impoverished background.
In a 2011 profile by the UK's The Independent, it notes Lomu was a typical rags-to-riches success story. He was born to Tongan parents and grew up on the violent streets of Auckland. His sporting talent became his escape route.
The newspaper narrates that his mother, aware of the hell-hole he was growing up in, sent Lomu to board at the strictly Methodist Wesley College.
There, Lomu achieved a Master of Fine Arts in rugby and marketing, leaving the college in 1993 with that qualification under his belt, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Three years later, according to Wikipedia, Lomu married South African Tanya Rutter before divorcing four years later and marrying Fiona in secret in 2003, before divorcing her five years later after he had an affair with Nadene Quirk.
Jonah and Nadene later married and she is currently listed as MD of Stylez as well as a director of Jonah Lomu 7one5, which is listed on LinkedIn as Lomu’s management company.
Wikipedia also notes Lomu was a member of the Champions For Peace club, and also lent his name to various video games including Jonah Lomu Rugby and Rugby Challenge.
He was portrayed by Isaac Fe'aunati in Invictus, a movie chronicling Nelson Mandela's journey with the South African rugby team in the 1995 World Cup.
IOL