The curious case of Steven Pienaar:

The ball is fed out wide to the feet of Steven Pienaar. He busts out an array of tricks and flicks practically unseen at Goodison Park in recent months. He leaves Chelsea defender Jose Boswinga chasing his dust, sending 40,000 Evertonians into a rapturous roar of approval. “Peanuts” was back.

Born in Westbury, a poor suburb of Johannesburg, the young Pienaar always showed a flair for the game of football, and aged 18 joined Ajax Cape Town. The young South African credited his time with the Ajax Amsterdam feeder club as essential in his football development.

Aged 18, he was soon brought over to Holland to play for his parent club Ajax, and impressed in his 5 years at the Eredivisie club, in both the Champions League and Domestically.

He soon earned a move to Borrusia Dortmund to replace Arsenal-bound Tomáš Rosický, but failed to make an impact in the Bundesliga, and in the summer of 2007 he was placed on the transfer list.

So far in his fledging career, Pienaar has displayed an abundance of talent and potential, but it was unknown whether or not he had the temperament to fulfil such early promise. This is where Everton and David Moyes come in.

Over the years, David Moyes has developed a niche of taking rough diamonds and turning them into polished jewels, think Mikel Arteta, Jolean Lescott, Phil Jagielka, Seamus Coleman… the list goes on and on. Out of both necessity and ability the wily Scot has picked up bargains and either sold them for large sums of money or turned them into valuable team players.

So when Everton announced the signing of a virtually unknown South Africa midfielder with a preference for the left, Evertonians everywhere where optimistic about his potential – they were right.

Pienaar flourished in what was initially a loan deal and was soon turned permanent. He was the quick footed trequartista that the Everton midfield so needed – his ingenious ability to play football coupled with an industrious work rate immediately endeared himself to the Everton crowd, and he spent four great years on Merseyside. Then came the winter transfer window of 2011. Everton were flirting with the prospect of mid-table mediocrity, whilst high-flying Tottenham Hotspur were competing in the Champions League and mounting a credible bid on the Premier League title. Pienaar however was a shining light in a poor Everton season – and his contract was up come the end of the season. This prompted Harry Redknapp to come in like a vulture and take the South African playmaker for a tiny fee of just £3 million pounds – at least a 5^th of his true worth.

It was a perennial case of the grass isn’t always greener in North London though, as Pienaar failed to break into a midfield containing Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart, Luka Modric and Aaron Lennon, and he was forced to spend much of his time with Spurs watching from the bench. Several minor injuries didn’t help the midfielder’s case, but in truth he was never going to be a major role in Redknapp’s team. Fast forward to the 31^st of January 2012. David Moyes is frantically trying to bring in new recruits to bolster his squad for the run in. Darron Gibson and Nikicia Jelavic have both signed on the dotted line, but the Scot is keen on bringing in a creative wide player – Exiled winger Steven Pienaar fits the bill.

After a night of dramatics which included Pienaar pleading to Redknapp to let him go, he signed a loan deal just minutes before the deadline – cue unanimous delight from Evertonians everywhere. For the next six months the South African was back to his scintillating best – inspiring an excellent run in from Everton.  Some man-of-the-match performances from “Peanuts” made Moyes come out and promise Everton fans that he would do whatever he could to bring him back on a permanent deal, but it remains to be seen whether or not Tottenham will let him go. One thing is for sure though, Steven Pienaar loves Everton Football Club with all his heart, and Goodison Park is his spiritual footballing home.

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