Pienaar heading back to Mzansi
END OF AN ERA: FORMER BAFANA CAPTAIN TO LEAVE UK
Gauteng clubs on alert as diminutive star hopes to play on.
Steven Pienaar admits that it is time for him to return home to play in South Africa, and has hinted that he will join a Gauteng-based club for the 2017/18 season.
The likes of Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs could be set for a tugof-war over Pienaar’s signature, after the 35-year-old also indicated that a move to Cape Town City would be too far away from his Johannesburg-based family.
Pienaar was linked with a move back to the Premier Soccer League last season, but ended up joining English Premier League side Sunderland, with whom he suffered relegation to the Championship in the 2016/17 campaign.
Now, however, Pienaar seems to have his heart set on playing back at home.
“I am just back home and I haven’t heard anything from my agent … I am waiting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks,” said Pienaar yesterday, at his annual community tournament in Westbury.
“It is definitely time to come home. I can’t play at that (English Premier League) level again. I told myself that and I sat with my family and agent and I have said I don’t think I can do another year in the Premier League – the pace there is unbelievable.
“It is time for me to go home and if I do get the opportunity I will definitely take it. South African football is entertaining and you can keep pace. You can play at pace, but if you compare it to the Premier League it is more up and down.
“No I haven’t,” added Pienaar, when asked if he had spoken to any team.
“The only person I have spoken to is Benni (McCarthy) to congratulate him on his move (McCarthy is the new head coach at Cape Town City).
“It would be a nice reunion and I like Cape Town as a city but I don’t think it will happen, because my mum is in Johannesburg and I have just moved back. I have been away so long and if I move to another city my mother might kill me!”