Sunday Times

Few will doubt that lionheart Tau is the IT guy right now

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● Somebody sent me a picture. Not nudes you muppet. I never R.E.Q.U.S.T.E.D any.

The picture had two people, accompanie­d by the caption: Once upon a time.

Huh, huh, curb your fertile imaginatio­n. It was not an old squeeze engaging in a futile exercise of navel gazing. The two people in the picture are players but not the kind that play the up close and personal game for two on R Kelly’s Bump n' Grind.

In motion are the people in the picture, so close to each other, wowing the world with their wonderful talent. Today they are worlds apart. Literally and figurative­ly.

One is Portuguese. Another is South African. One stands on the stratosphe­re of their chosen profession while the other is making do in the lower division.

The two people in this picture are Cristiano Ronaldo, in the Valentine red and white of Manchester United, and Mbulelo “OJ” Mabizela, clad in the blue and white of Tottenham Hotspur.

We had great hope for Old-John, the youngest player to captain Orlando Pirates to a Premier Soccer League title. The youngest player to marshal the Bafana Bafana forces as their captain at age 22. I speak of the man from Maritzburg who marked his debut in the English Premier League by banging a 25metre belter to help Spurs beat Leicester City 2-1 in 2003.

If memory serves me well, that screamer secured the goal of the week accolade and announced his arrival in spectacula­r fashion.

Fast forward to 2018, and there is a player who is making waves and has the ability to do justice to a potential pregnant with internatio­nal stardom.

Arise player of the month for December in the Premier Soccer League, Percy Tau.

All who love football across the length and breadth of the land of Keorapetse Kgositsile — bless his soul — agree that lionheart Tau is the IT guy of South African football.

Nobody who watches the game without club-allegiance-tinted eyes can contest that Tau is a player who not only takes pride in what he does but derives delirious joy from it too.

His spreads it to the terraces as well through his creativity, bravery, unpredicta­bility, mobility. Even more impressive is his intelligen­ce and awareness. His conversion ratio has plenty of room for improvemen­t.

By the time the ball lands at his feet, he knows exactly what he’s going to do with it; how he is going to do it and where he is going to do it. Percy makes people happy. My submission is that the people will be more happy to see him continue to achieve even more amazing things than he has amassed.

An even bigger and brighter future lies in store for this son of South African soccer. Thank goodness he has his head screwed right and a good brain to boot.

His height, mane of hair and ability to use his low centre of gravity to his advantage has echoes of Mo “Walala Wasala” Salah.

Like the Egyptian, Tau is capable of creating chances for himself with one exquisite control of the ball, and before you know it, the opposition finds itself in deep trouble. Many want to see #PT22 venture into European fields.

“I remember‚ I think it was Farouk Khan on TV saying: ‘He’s ready – he should go’. But I still think I was right. “Because he’s a really good football player (but) I needed to work with him one more year to clean up a few things,” remarked PItso Mosimane, recalling the departure of Keagan Dolly from Sundowns to French Ligue 1 side Montpellie­r.

“And as much as we all want Percy to go to Europe‚ we also know that there’s a few things we need to clean up a little bit. And then let them go to top leagues. Let’s have a player in La Liga or Bundesliga.” He knows him better than most. One day somebody will send me a picture, one of them will be Tau doing the business in a proper league.

@bbkunplugg­ed99

An even brighter future lies in store for this son of South African soccer

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