The newly crowned Footballer of the Year, Percy Tau, has promised to come back next season a better player after standing head and shoulders above his peers in the 2017/18 season.
Those peers named the Mamelodi Sundowns’ star the Absa Premiership Player’s Player of the Season. The 16 coaches in the Premier Division voted for the 24-year-old as the Footballer of the Year. Tau’s third gong in the Premier Soccer League awards that were hosted at the Sandton Convention Centre on Tuesday was the Golden Boot he shared with Rodney Ramagalela.
“You can expect a lot of improvement from me next season,” Tau said. “I am still working on my right foot. I need to increase the number of chances that I convert. I scored 11 goals this season. I am proud of that but at the back of my mind I know that I could have done better with the chances I missed. I am still going to improve. I still have time.”
Tau was speechless after being named King of South African football.
“I still need to get time to relax so that I can reflect on all of this,” Tau said. “But I am very proud of the work that we have put in this season. This is a reward of the good work we put in at Sundowns and myself. I couldn’t have done it without the support of the coach, the technical team and my teammates who I think did extremely well this season. This is just a reward. It wasn’t a dream for me to be crowned Footballer of the Season.”
The Brazilians ended the night with four awards. Sundowns’ coach Pitso Mosimane won the Absa Premiership Coach of the Season award. Jingles was honoured for guiding Sundowns to their record eighth league title in the PSL-era. The PSL chairman Irvin Khoza was full of praises for Mosimane, ending his speech by saying that ‘whether you like it or not, Mosimane is the most successful coach in the PSL’.
“I feel good,” Mosimane said. “To be honest with you I never thought that I would get it. But I am happy that our work has been rewarded. This is a token of appreciation for the work we have put in, right through the year and for the boys. They’ve been there. We just direct the programme. They are the ones who are running 90 minutes. The supporters, the board and the management of the team have played a part in us being here. We just have to thank all the stakeholders. Masandawana, who have been singing all the time. My technical staff, the groundsmen and everybody. I just want to thank everybody.”
