The stagnation of former Mamelodi Sundowns striker Percy Tau’s career is bad news for Bafana Bafana and for South African soccer as a whole.
The only team who have reportedly shown interest in signing Tau is French second-tier side Le Havre, who are coached by Luka Elsner - the manager which Tau previously worked under at Union SG in Belgium, while on loan from Brighton.
That there has been such little interest in what is arguably South African soccer’s best player, is worrying.
It’s a gauge perhaps of how South African footballers have fallen on the international stage from the days of Lucas Radebe, Benni McCarthy, Mark Fish, Steven Pienaar, Aaron Mokoena, Andre Arendse, Shaun Bartlett and Phil Masinga, who flew the SA flag so high in Europe.
These days, Europe’s top leagues are full of African internationals and many of those players are key performers for their clubs. There are no South Africans though among such players.
Tau’s current situation is a long way from the excitement of when he first signed for Brighton in the Premier League and his chances of playing in one of Europe’s top leagues seems to be getting slimmer.
To make matters worse, it’s emerging from Egypt that one reason Al Ahly have struggled to sell the former Witbank Spurs winger is because of a back problem.
Bafana's talisman fading?
With the possible exception of Katlego Mphela, Bafana Bafana have battled for the better part of two decades to come up with a reliable goalscorer, this problem coinciding with an overall dip in the national team’s fortunes.
It had been hoped that Tau would be the one to take over the baton and spearhead Bafana Bafana’s revival and for a while he seemed to be doing that.
While Bafana Bafana’s next games – 2023 Afcon qualifiers - are someway off still in March next year, South Africa coach Hugo Broos could really do with a fit and firing Tau. At 28, the next few months could be crucial to his career and perhaps if Europe is becoming less of an option, a move back to the PSL might be best.
It’s the price tag on his head though which makes that tricky and while the likes of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates would surely be interested, it may only be former club Sundowns who can afford Tau.
