Percy Tau of Al Ahly celebrates with the South African flag after victory over Wydad in the CAF Champions League final Percy Tau of Al Ahly celebrates with the South African flag after victory over Wydad in the CAF Champions League final. Photo: Weam Mostafa/BackpagePix
Cape Town — Mamelodi Sundowns remain the leading club in South Africa although their standing in Africa took a dip because they failed to reach the CAF Champions League final.
Nevertheless footballalphabet.com has the South Africans as Africa's No 4-ranked team. Last month the team was in the No 2 berth.
Sundowns, former Champions League winners, were eliminated in the semi-finals last month and that caused them to drop in the rankings
Wydad Athletic Club are second after finishing runners-up to 11-time CAF Champions League title holders Al Ahly, who are in the No 1 position.
Orlando Pirates is the next-best SA side in 17th place. This is a huge improvement on their 28th place last month. The Sea Robbers finished runners-up to Sundowns and won the season-ending Nedbank Cup which a huge boost in the rankings.
One of the key figures in Sundowns' success has been the Namibian predator Peter Shalulile. Although his team did not reach the final he finished joint leading scorer with Al Ahly's Mahmoud Kahraba, who was a prolific scorer for the Egyptian side.
Shalulile and Kahraba shared the 2022/23 CAF Champions League Golden Boot award.
This is the second time that Shalulile has won the Champions League Golden Boot award. In the 2018/19 season, he shared the award with five other players.
Meanwhile, Al Ahly's glorious achievements have also bolstered the profile of South African Percy Tau who is becoming one of the most decorated African players.
He was a stand-out player for Al Ahly in both legs of the Champions League final and could easily have won the Player of the Match award on both occasions. With his latest medal, he achieved the rare distinction of winning the Champions League with different clubs.
Before moving abroad Tau won the Premiership twice, the Nedbank Cup, Telkom Knockout, the CAF Champions League and the CAF Super Cup as a Sundowns player.
In 2019 he joined Club Brugge in Belgium and won the Belgian Pro League in his debut season.
Afterwards, he joined Al Ahly and won the CAF Super Cup, Egyptian Super Cup, Egypt Cup and the recent Champions League.
Tau is presently in South Africa and Bafana Bafana fans are hoping he'll star against the highly-rated Moroccans at the FNB Stadium on Saturday.
Top 10: 1 Al Ahly (Egypt) – 83 points, 2 Wydad AC (Morocco) – 74, 3 Esperance (Tunisia) – 56, 4 Mamelodi Sundowns (South Africa) – 51, 5 Raja CA (Morocco) – 51, 6 Zamalek (Egypt) – 39, 7 RS Berkane (Morocco) – 37, 8 CR Belouizdad (Algeria) – 36, 9 Simba SC (Tanzania) – 35 and 10 Pyramids (Egypt) – 35.
IOL Sport