Jimmy Tau (born 23 July 1980 in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

) is a South African former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He played for

Kaizer Chiefs Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) is a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premiership. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Kings" or "Chiefs" in Zu ...

and

Orlando Pirates Orlando Pirates Football Club, referred to as simply Pirates, is a South African professional football club based in Orlando, Soweto that plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as Betway Premiership. The team plays i ...

and in the

South African Premier Division The South African Premiership, also known as the Betway Premiership for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the PSL after its governing body, is a professional soccer league in South Africa and the highest level of the South Afric ...

and for Basotho Tigers and Maritzburg City in the

National First Division The South African Championship, officially known as the Motsepe Foundation Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest league of South African football after the South African Premiership. Both the South African Championship and ...

. He also played internationally for

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and was a participant at the

2006 African Nations Cup The 2006 Africa Cup of Nations was the 25th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the association football championship of Africa. It was hosted by Egypt, from 20 January to 10 February. Just like in 2004, the field of sixteen teams was split int ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

Club career

Basotho Tigers

Jimmy Tau started out at Basotho Tigers in the 1999/00

Vodacom League The SAFA Second Division (known as the ABC Motsepe League for sponsorship reasons, and previously the Vodacom League between 1998 and 2012, was founded in 1998 as the overall third tier of South African football. The competition is regulated by ...

season in the semi-pro ranks. The club was promoted to the

and finished 11th in its debut season.

Maritzburg City

In the 2001/02 he moved to Maritzburg City where he would play alongside his future teammate Mabhuti Khenyeza. Tau played 28 games and helped the team finish 3rd on the log

Orlando Pirates

Tau signed for Orlando Pirates ahead of the 2002/ 2003 campaign, going on to win the league with the Buccaneers that season.

Kaizer Chiefs

Tau joined Chiefs in 2005. His debut for Chiefs was in the SAA Supa 8 quarter-final on 20 August 2005 in a 2–1 loss to

Bloemfontein Celtic Bloemfontein Celtic Football Club (simply known as Celtic) is a South African soccer club based in Bloemfontein. Bloemfontein Celtic had a large fan base in the Free State and competed in the Premiership before selling their status to Royal ...

. His first goal for Chiefs came in a league match against

Silver Stars The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an ...

on 23 April 2006 winning 2–1. Tau went on the captain Chiefs in an eight-year stay that coincided with the club winning two Nedbank Cup trophies, two MTN8 cups, three Telkom Knockout winners' medals, and the 2012/ 2013 Absa Premiership trophy. By the end of his spell Tau had played 210 matches for Chiefs.

International career

Tau made his international debut on 8 October 2003 in a 3–0 win over

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

Maseru Maseru is the capital and largest city of Lesotho. It is also the capital of the Maseru District. Located on the Caledon River, Maseru lies directly on the Lesotho–South Africa border. Maseru had a population of 330,760 in the 2016 census. T ...

. He was a participant in the 2006 AFCON. He played his last international match on 28 March 2007 against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

in a 1–0 loss coming in as a substitute for Cyril Nzama.

Style of play

Tau played as a marauding right back.

PSL PSL may refer to: Sport *Pakistan Super League, a Twenty20 cricket league *Palau Soccer League, top division association football league in Palau *Pilipinas Super League, a professional basketball league *Philippine Super Liga, a defunct profes ...

.co.za described Tau as an incisive tackler and had outstanding timing in his challenges.

Retirement

Tau announced his retirement from professional football on his 33rd birthday at the Conference Centre, Soweto Hotel in

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

on 23 July 2013. He also cited his injury being one of the reasons for his retirement.

Outside football

In December 2012, Tau became the director of Bataung Memorial Tombstones, a tombstone manufacturing company based in

Katlehong Katlehong is a large township in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is 28 km south-east of Johannesburg and south of Germiston between two other townships of Thokoza and Vosloorus next to the N3 highway. It forms part of the City of E ...

. Tau was one of three former sportsmen featured on '' Survivor South Africa'' filmed in October 2013 on an island off

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

in the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

including former

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

defender

Mark Fish Mark Anthony Fish (born 14 March 1974) is a South African former professional association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football), defender. Club career Born in Cape Town, Fish started his career in his native Sout ...

and former Springbok captain Corné Krige. Tau described the island as "a beautiful island, that is extremely hot and very humid". Tau released his autobiography on 25 December 2013 called "Jimmy Tau - My Life Story".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tau, Jimmy 1980 births Living people South African men's soccer players South Africa men's international soccer players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Men's association football defenders Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Soccer players from Kimberley, Northern Cape 21st-century South African sportsmen