Pienaar - SA's Dutch dazzler
If the past three years have been hectic for Steven Pienaar, the last couple of weeks must have been something like a Ferrari on the back straight.
The South African footballer has gone from an impoverished Johannesburg township to a Parow boarding house and today is a household name in Holland. The European, and world, stage look set to soon follow.
Ten days ago Pienaar outshone an Arsenal midfield assembled at a cost of millions of pounds, signed a new contract with Ajax Amsterdam and repaid them with two goals on Sunday to keep his team in second spot in the Dutch league.
His rise started at the beginning of 2000.
An 18-year-old Pienaar had broken into the Ajax Cape Town first team and in March that year scored twice - one a brilliant solo goal - in his team's 3-2 win over Orlando Pirates in Johannesburg.
The next day an Ajax bus picked Pienaar up at Cape Town airport and dropped him off at the boarding house he shared with teammates Dominic Isaacs and Shaun Potgieter as well as half-a-dozen Ajax juniors who returned to their digs each day from school before heading for training.
Pienaar's room was separated from the lounge by a curtain and his prize possession was a portable CD player.
"He was my 'first son'," said landlady Ann Lotz on Tuesday. "Steven was our first soccer player, he was with us for 18 months.
"We had his 18th birthday party here, the photos are still on the wall," said Lotz who also recalled trips to the beach. "None of them had cars, my husband and I used to bundle the boys into the kombi for a day at the beach."
Lotz and her family stay in touch with Pienaar via e-mails and have followed his career since he went to Holland. "Wasn't 'my son' brilliant against Arsenal?" enthused the landlady.
After pulling Arsenal's Patrick Vieira all over the Highbury midfield, Pienaar was subdued in the return European Champions League match in Amsterdam.
Arsene Wenger's side are not top of the Premier League, heading for another "double", for nothing and it was obvious Pienaar's performance in London had the Arsenal manager planning to keep the South African on the fringes in Holland.
Meanwhile the Ajax management moved quickly. They knew there would have been a number of scouts from clubs around Europe at Highbury with Pienaar's name heavily circled in the match programme.
Last Saturday Pienaar signed a lucrative new contract with Ajax that elevated him to similar deals as Benni McCarthy, Mark Fish, Quinton Fortune and Shaun Bartlett.
On Tuesday a South African agent, recently returned from Britain, estimated Pienaar would be on about R150 000 a week, plus bonuses. "There would be other perks ... a house and car, and with Ajax still in the Champions League those bonuses will be huge," said the agent.
A huge task for Pienaar, though, is to retain his place and position in the Ajax line-up once key players Jari Litmanen and Rafael van der Vaart return from injury.
Until now he's done fine in the hole just behind the strikers wearing the No 10 shirt originally made famous in the Ajax red and white by the great Johan Cruyff. Three times this season Pienaar has been Ajax's man of the match and been complimented by Cruyff himself on television.
Ajax fans are keenly watching to see whether Pienaar can fill Cruyff's boots, though, with his 21st birthday just around the corner, he has time on his side.