Percy Tau moves on season-long loan to Club Brugge
In the name of Percy Tau, amen! The Lion of Judah has had his latest loan moved confirmed as he heads back to Belgium for a season long stint with top flight Club Brugge.
Tau impressed last season while playing for Union St Gilloise. He scored 11 times, claimed 13 assists and was voted as the Proximus Player of the Year.
That form attracted the attention of bigger clubs on the continent and it’s one of Belgium’s biggest who have been lucky enough to secure the services of a man who we are reliably informed by out South African friends will win the Ballon d’Or one day.
The move will allow Tau to test himself not only in the Belgian top division, but also in the Champions League potentially.
Brugge have already eliminated Sporting Lisbon in the qualifying rounds and success in their next two-legged play off against Dynamo Kiev would see them into the group stages.
That should at least help Tau to start building points towards getting a British Work Permit. Last season’s spell with Union, although productive from a personal point of view for Tau, was a complete waste of time in terms of helping him qualify to legally work in this country.
An improbable African Cup of Nations triumph for South Africa might have helped Tau’s case. As it was, Bafana Bafana exited the tournament at the quarter final stage to Leon Balogun’s Nigeria, although they did cause quite a stir when eliminating hosts and favourites Egypt in the last 16.
The Lion of Judah received great praise for his performance in that shock win. In fact, he was a real livewire throughout South Africa’s five games in the competition, particularly from set pieces with some of his deliveries being described as “Paul Watson-esque”. Praise doesn’t come much higher than that.
South Africa’s run in Egypt lifted them up three places in the world rankings to 70th but they are still some distance from reaching the top 50 which is where they need to be for Tau to qualify for a work permit.
With only a handful of games scheduled for Bafana Bafana over the coming year, it seems pretty unlikely they’ll rise much further before the 2020-21 Premier League season.
That means that Tau’s hopes of securing a work permit for next season rest solely on his performances for Brugge in the coming campaign.
Now that the Lion of Judah is playing in one of Europe’s top seven leagues, he can start accumulating points if he plays in at least 30% of available minutes. The bigger that percentage, the more points he gets.
There are bonus points to be had from playing 30% of available minutes in continental competitions, so either the Champions League or the Europa League. That’s another box that Brugge can help Tau tick.
Despite that, it still remains unlikely Tau will secure enough points. Most players have to spend several seasons in one of Europe’s top flights in order to qualify, so it’s unlikely that the Lion of Judah can do it in one, even if he is Pele, Maradona, Messi and Ronaldo rolled into one.
A sensational, record breaking season could lead the Albion to apply for special permission for Tau to be granted a work permit.
A player who is deemed to be deemed to be “internationally established at the highest level and will make a significant contribution to the development of football in England, ” can be given special dispensation. If the Home Office knew how good the Lion of Judah is, they’d surely rubber stamp his arrival straight away.
Still, there is one upside to Tau spending another year in Belgium. Two actually. We can continue to be entertained by all the commends on the Albion’s social media feeds from confused South Africans who don’t understand why the Lion of Judah isn’t firing Brighton to the Premier League title.
There’s also the possibility of a trip to Bruges to watch Tau play. The WeAreBrighton.com have been there before to watch Club take on Aalborg in the Europa League in 2015 as part of a Belgian Football Trip.
A certain Maty Ryan was in goal for them that day, but the best part of the visit was discovering a bar that sold no beer below 12% in strength and gave out a complimentary bowl of cheese with each round.
Beer, cheese and Percy Tau. Sounds like the dream combination. See you on the Eurostar.
