Bafana Bafana's qualification for the AFCON finals will this evening be determined against a country whose only footballer to ever play in the PSL was a flop at Orlando Pirates 15 years ago.
The name Haytham Tambal might not even ring a bell to some but this was a Sudanese striker who spent the first half of the 2006/07 season at Pirates.
Tambal was signed after scoring a brace for Al Hilal in 3-1 win over Pirates in Omdurman in a 2006 CAF Champions League second round tie play on May 6, 2006.
The Al Hilal chief marksman harassed the Pirates defence all afternoon and left the Pirates authorities convinced that this was a man who would solve their scoring troubles going into the 2006/07 season.
Signed as a 27-year-old who was already a great at Al Hilal – Tambal was handed jersey number 9 at Pirates but found the PSL rather awkward.
He struggled with the football, the language, and the fact that he was now a nobody in South Africa, yet he was hero worshipped in Sudan.
His stay at Pirates lasted under six months during he started one game against AmaZulu and then came on as substitute in another two against SuperSport United and Maritzburg United.
He scored against Maritzburg in 4-2 Telkom Knockout win in November 2006 but by then his mind was already made up that Johannesburg wasn't for him.
The next month he went back home for the festive season break and never returned instead joining his former club Al Hilal's rivals Al Merreikh where he played for the rest of his career.
Tambal now works at Al Wakrah SC in Qatar and remains a legend in Sudan having won the league numerous times for both Al Hilal and Al Merreikh.
Bafana need to avoid defeat at the Al Hilal Stadium – which Tambal called home for years – to secure qualification.