Steven Pienaar: Retired Bafana Soccer Winger, His Clubs, Caps, Net Worth and Coaching Path

Steven Pienaar is a retired South African soccer player, born on 17 March 1982 in Johannesburg, who starred on the wing and in attacking midfield for Bafana Bafana, Ajax and Everton. He plays for no club, having retired in March 2018 after his final spell at Bidvest Wits, and he has coached youth players since 2019, with Wikipedia listing him at Sharjah FC in the UAE from 2024. So, if you searched for his club, the honest answer is a coaching role rather than a squad number.

Stevie P grew up in Westbury, and his career reads like the stamps in a well used passport, from Ajax Cape Town to Amsterdam, Dortmund, Merseyside and London. Below you will find every club and every reported fee, the caps question explained in plain words, the net worth estimates set side by side with their outlets, and what he has done since he stopped playing. The career records modules hold his playing data alongside the account of his move into coaching.

Who Is Steven Pienaar?

Steven Pienaar is one of the most decorated creative players South Africa has sent abroad, a winger and attacking midfielder whose peak came in the Premier League with Everton. He won two Eredivisie titles with Ajax, led the Champions League for assists in 2005-06, was named SAFA Player of the Year in 2009 and was Everton Player of the Season in 2009-10. He also played at two major tournaments on home soil, the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup.

Where you live shapes how you remember him. In Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town he is a Bafana nostalgia figure, the little man in yellow from the winter of 2010. But, in Lagos, Nairobi, Accra and Kampala, where Premier League viewing runs deep, he is an Everton legend who earned the club's Player of the Season award in 2009-10. In my opinion, few South African players have managed to belong to both audiences so completely.

The Road From Westbury: Every Club and Every Reported Fee

The road started at Ajax Cape Town, where Pienaar played from 1999 to 2001, making 24 appearances and scoring 6 goals. In December 2000 he won the Rothmans Cup, the competition later known as the Telkom Knockout, with the Cape Town club. The link between the Cape Town club and its Amsterdam parent then did what it was built to do, and he moved to Ajax in 2001 as a teenager, a path that young players in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya still point to as the model route from Africa into the Eredivisie.

At Ajax, from 2001 to 2006, he won the Eredivisie in 2001-02 and 2003-04 and added the KNVB Cup in 2001-02. In January 2006 he signed a three year deal with Borussia Dortmund, where he did not score in the league.

Everton took him on loan from Dortmund for 2007-08, paying a reported initial loan fee of £350,000. The move became permanent in 2008 for a reported £2 million, and he stayed until 2011. Tottenham Hotspur then signed him in January 2011 for a reported £3 million before the next chapter opened back on Merseyside.

He returned to Everton on loan in January 2012, and Everton made it permanent in July 2012 for a reported £4.5 million. That ladder is unusual, because his price rose as he moved into his thirties. He joined Sunderland on a one year deal in August 2016 (15 league appearances) and Bidvest Wits in July 2017, where the spell ended after about six months. The table below records his club moves through the 2017-18 season, with a dash where an appearance or goal figure is omitted.

Which Club Does Steven Pienaar Play For Now?

Steven Pienaar plays for no club, because he announced his retirement in March 2018 after leaving Bidvest Wits. He moved straight into coaching, completing his UEFA A Licence in September 2019 and working as an assistant coach at SV Robinhood from 2019 to 2020. He then joined the Ajax youth setup, coaching there from 2020 to 2024, which brought him back to the club that had signed him from Cape Town almost two decades earlier.

Wikipedia lists him as a Sharjah FC youth coach from 2024. His coaching path has taken the former Bafana midfielder from the Netherlands to the UAE.

What Did Stevie P Do on the Pitch?

Pienaar was a creator first, a winger and attacking midfielder who made the players around him better. In 2005-06, he finished as the Champions League's top assist provider with Ajax. If you want one season to sum up his gift for the final pass, that is the one.

Everton is where his game found its fullest shape. He was named the club's Player of the Season for 2009-10, the same period in which he was SAFA Player of the Year for 2009, and he was part of the Everton side that reached the 2009 FA Cup final, finishing as runners up. Those years gave Premier League viewers across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda most of their memories of him, usually on a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday kick off.

Pienaar did not score in the league during his Dortmund spell.

Perhaps the best way to understand him is through the Ajax titles. He won the Eredivisie twice, in 2001-02 and 2003-04, and the KNVB Cup in 2001-02, while still learning his trade in a system that prizes movement and passing above size. In my opinion, that Dutch education is why a small player from Westbury could hold his own in the most physical league in Europe for the better part of a decade.

Pienaar and Bafana Bafana: Debut, Two Home Tournaments and the Caps Question

Pienaar made his senior debut for South Africa in a friendly against Turkey on 23 May 2002, just before that year's World Cup. He travelled to the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea as a member of the squad but was an unused substitute. It was a quiet start for a player who would become one of the central figures of the national side across the following decade.

He withdrew injured from the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, but the following year brought the 2009 Confederations Cup on home soil, where South Africa finished fourth. That tournament was a dress rehearsal for the country, and for the team, a chance to show that the side could compete with the best in front of its own supporters. Pienaar was part of that run, which many fans still remember fondly.

At the 2010 World Cup in South Africa he started all three group matches, and the hosts became the first host nation to be eliminated in the group stage. The tournament was a national moment, with Pienaar representing Bafana Bafana as South Africa welcomed the soccer world.

He announced his international retirement in October 2012 and did not reverse it despite requests. Wikipedia's infobox credits him with 61 caps and 3 goals between 2002 and 2012, while its lead text says 62. The caps module presents his international record.

Steven Pienaar net worth

Briefly News estimated Steven Pienaar's net worth at USD 11 million (R209 million) in May 2025. Cape Argus, in a December 2024 table of South Africa's richest sports stars, listed his net worth at R523 million, giving no method or source for the figure. For readers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda, the USD 11 million figure is the easier reference point.

Briefly News also reported in 2025 that his Everton pay was about £70,000 to £75,000 a week at his peak, which it said is over USD 3 million a year. It added that he had a 2010 World Cup endorsement campaign, with the terms undisclosed.

The two published net worth estimates differ widely, and neither gives a shared method. Neither is audited. These are published estimates, not accounts, so you should treat them as rough guides rather than facts about his bank balance.

Pienaar's transfer prices and reported earnings describe different parts of his career finances. The reported £2 million, £3 million and £4.5 million transfer payments were club receipts rather than personal income for the Bafana midfielder. His quoted weekly pay also leaves personal expenses and other deductions unaccounted for, so it cannot establish his accumulated wealth. Those Everton salary reports offer context for the estimates, but they do not reveal Pienaar's assets or financial commitments.

How to Watch Pienaar's Legacy From Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Uganda

Pienaar's retirement in 2018 makes archive matches the way to revisit his playing career. The viewing modules list older match availability by country. Bafana fixture times appear together in WAT, EAT, SAST and GMT; for example, 18:00 GMT corresponds to 19:00 WAT, 20:00 SAST and 21:00 EAT.

For Premier League viewers in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Uganda, his Everton years are the natural place to start, especially the 2009-10 season in which he was named the club's Player of the Season. For young players across the continent, the Ajax Cape Town to Ajax route he took remains the model pathway into the Eredivisie, and his coaching career shows how that education can carry on after the playing days end.

If you want to see him at his best, start with his 2005-06 Champions League season with Ajax, then the 2009-10 Everton season, and finish with the three 2010 World Cup group matches. After that, explore our wider list of African soccer players to compare his path with the players who followed him from the Premiership into Europe.