STEVEN Pienaar always maintained that he left Everton for Tottenham Hotspur in search of European Champions League football, but his return to the Toffees in January might have ended his chances of playing in Europe's top competition with Spurs next season.

The Bafana Bafana skipper left Everton for north London in early 2011, but a succession of injuries and then non-selection by Spurs manager Harry Redknapp meant his opportunities to play were limited.

He jumped at the chance to return to Merseyside at the start of 2012 on loan for the rest of the season, and since then has been a revelation for the club, culminating in his superb performance, and goal, in the 4-4 draw at Manchester United on Sunday.

Pienaar has now netted three times in his 10 appearances for the Toffees, a healthy enough return, but it is his all-round play that caught the eye and made him arguably one of the form midfielders in the English Premier League this year.

How Redknapp must now be ruing allowing him to leave in January. While the Spurs boss bemoans his lack of attacking options that has seen his side slip out of the top four and the Champions League qualification places with three wins in 14 league games this year, the one man who could have made a difference for him was Pienaar.

By contrast, Everton have lost two of the matches the former Ajax Cape Town product has played in during that time - to Liverpool and Arsenal. Pienaar is a player who needs to feel wanted and that was not the case at his two most disappointing spells - Borussia Dortmund in Germany and at Spurs.

"It just didn't work out," he said of his one season at Dortmund. "I was never made to feel welcome like at Everton. If a player is happy then he'll play well."

He probably could say exactly the same about his time at Spurs. Two of his goals for Everton this season have come against Chelsea and Manchester United, proof also that he is a man for the big occasion.

But the real winner in all of this might be Bafana national team coach Pitso Mosimane, who faces the biggest challenge of his stint in charge so far when the 2014 World Cup qualifiers get under way in June with matches at home to Ethiopia and away at Botswana.

Pienaar will always find it difficult to replicate his club form in a national team jersey because the brutal truth is he does not have the calibre of player around him to really shine. But he can still be the driving force for the side, and the fact that he is playing well and in a happy mental space can only be good news for the country.