OFFICIAL: Percy Tau set to stay at Al Ahly
Bafana playmaker Percy Tau increasingly appears certain to remain at Egypt club Al Ahly despite previous exit talks.
For several weeks it’s been reported that Al Ahly were intent on offloading Bafana star Percy Tau, who has been suffering from another injury, although it increasingly appears that there are very few other options for the 28-year-old.
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The desire of Al Ahly to part ways with Tau was recently highlighted by journalist Fathallah Zidane on ONTime Sports, with the reporter also dropping the bombshell that it was Orlando Pirates who were possibly keen on bringing the Bafana player to Soweto.
That talk has since quietened down, while there hasn’t been much to suggest that Kaizer Chiefs are in the running for Tau’s services. Meanwhile, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has said that if Tau wanted to return to South Africa that they’d be open to “exploring” this possibility.
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In the latest news out of Egypt, former Al Ahly defender Omar Rabie Yassin suggested the club had actually accepted an offer from Saudi side Al Taawoun to sign Tau, but that deal apparently also collapsed at the 11th hour.
Speculation of Tau’s exit from Al Ahly now seems to have come to an end, with signs suggesting he may be part of the plans of new coach Marcel Koller ahead of the new campaign.
Koller named the club’s CAF Champions League squad a week after taking over the coaching job, and notably included Tau, who last week was not named in the latest Bafana squad.
Al Ahly have now also registered their squad for the 2022/23 Egyptian Premier League campaign, with Tau again included in that player list in the clearest indication yet that he is in the long-term plans of the squad.
Tau is expected to return to team training in around a week’s time.
Al Ahly squad in full:
Goalkeepers: Mohamed El-Shennawy, Ali Lotfi, Mostafa Shobier.
Defenders: Mohamed Hany, Karim Fouad, Mohamed Abdelmonem, Yasser Ibrahim, Rami Rabia, Mahmoud Metwally, Ali Maaloul, Ayman Ashraf, Mohamed Khalifa, Akram Tawfik.
Midfielders: Amr El-Solia, Aliou Dieng, Hamdi Fathy, Mohamed Mahmoud, Mohamed Fakhri, Mohamed Magdy Afsha, Ahmed Abdelkader, Hussein El-Shahat, Taher Mohamed, Ziad Tarek, Abdelrahman Ashraf, Walid Mostafa, Amar Hamdi, Mahmoud Kahraba.
Forwards: Mohamed Sherif, Hossam Hassan, Shady Hussein, Bruno Savio, Percy Tau.
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Tau’s former coach Luka Elsner, who tried to sign him in 2019, was at one point looking to lure the South African on a loan deal with French Ligue 2 club Le Havre for the 2022/23 season. However, subsequent reports suggested that the deal was proving to be “tricky”, and Le Havre ultimately backed off from pursuing the possibility of securing the services of Tau.
Tau had been linked to other clubs, with those talks ultimately also falling flat
Recent reports suggest that Anderlecht may have shown interest in re-signing Tau, with the talented playmaker having previously spent a season on loan with the Belgian outfit from Brighton & Hove Albion.
According to Egyptian news website and television channel Sada El-Balad, the Belgians had tabled on an offer of USD 2 million (approx. R33,38 million) for the South African. However, some rumours suggest Al Ahly’s evaluation is double that amount.
Nothing much has materialised after these reports came to light.
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