No World Cup for Tau: Players who ended Bafana careers early

KickOff takes a look at past South African footballers who ended their time with the national team while still having a lot to offer.

Matchday Global13 May 2026

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Percy Tau was a key part of the Bafana Bafana team at the 2023 AFCON, but his move to Vietnam seems to have killed his chances of playing in the World Cup.

KickOff takes a look at past footballers who ended their time with the national team while still having a lot to offer.

Just two years ago, it looked a near certainty that should Bafana qualify for the 2026 World Cup, Tau would form a key part of the plans.

Instead, he opted to continue his football career in Vietnam with Thep Xanh Man Dinh and has not been called up since by head coach Hugo Broos.

The former Everton star, who played for South Africa in the 2002 and 2010 editions of the World Cup, retired from international football in 2012, aged just 30 and while he was national team captain.

Pienaar’s early retirement from international football is believed to have been in an attempt to prolong his club career. His time playing at a high level in Europe ended at 35 in 2017 after Sunderland were relegated from the Premier League.

Given his talent, he should have earned far more than the 43 caps he did for Bafana. He also quite never really starred for the national team with his commitment to the cause also coming under question at times.

Serero is also reported to have had run-ins with the powers that be in South African football, which surely would have affected his mental state while on duty for Bafan. He last played for the side in a 1-0 AFCON qualification win over Sudan in November 2019 when he was 29.

A dependable striker, Ndlovu showed good movement off the ball and had the potential to be a regular feature in the national team. Instead, he only made a handful of appearances and that may be due to the journeyman state of his career.

The national team set-up never really had a lot of material to work with when it came to analyzing him over a sustained period of time.

All in all, Ndlovu played in over six countries, including Israel, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, China, Turkey, and his homeland of South Africa.