The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
TWO of junior football pacesetters, Manicaland Juniors of Excellence (MAJESA) players — Leon Mkonya and Beloved Msabaeka — who underwent trails at Caps United, were signed by the Harare giants this week as the Mutare-based outfit continues churning out future stars for top-flight league clubs.
Only recently, MAJESA dispatched five of its players to Dynamos for a training camp.
The five include Prosper Padera (15), Keith Muzengeza (17), Tanaka Matembedza (17), Norest Mazemo (16) and Tashinga Taedza (16).
MAJESA owner, Charles Chave said the whole idea behind the junior football initiative is to give back to the community through nurturing and developing football talent.
“We have two of our players who travelled to Harare for trials at Caps United. We are excited that they impressed the technical team and have since joined the club.
“MAJESA is purely a community development initiative that is meant to develop football talent and we drive our joy from the success of these players. We are giving back to the community through nurturing and developing football talent.
“These youngsters will one day turn into international stars and when they look back, they will also assist others the same way they were assisted,” he said.
Chave added that they still have many players who can fit in different top-flight league clubs.
“This is something that we will be doing with different top-flight league clubs as we continue nurturing talent. We have always said junior football is the backbone of the development efforts of the game, hence we will remain relentless in developing our youngsters.
“We had five players who went to Dynamos and are still training with the club. This is something that we are doing for the community around us. The world will soon see the importance of the efforts we are currently undertaking,” said Chave.
The latest development, including the five that went to Dynamos, is a culmination of the pledge made by Dynamos coach, Tonderai Ndiraya, who was the guest of honour during the belated end of season awards ceremony hosted by the academy at a local hotel recently.
“We really need to support this initiative as a people of Mutare and Manicaland at large. We all know that there is nothing we can achieve in football as a nation without proper junior football development initiatives, hence the need to support the likes of Charles and Nomsa Chave for this initiative,” said Ndiraya.
MAJESA has proved to be a professionally run junior football academy since the Covid-19 outbreak when it not only became the first football institution in the province to give material and financial support to families of their players, but also kept pouring out resources to support their players.
