The Sunday Mail
HIS arrival was as grand as the stage he was stepping on.
Returning from a season-long loan at Northern Region Division 1 side La Liga at the beginning of the 2012 season as cover for the title winning defence pairing of Guthrie Zhokinyi and George Magariro, the then 21-year-old and fresh-faced Partson Jaure ought to have felt butterflies in his tummy.
But alas, the Dynamos juniors’ product – who had arrived at the Glamour Boys back in 2002 playing for the Under-13 side – was composed and full of dreams.
However, Jaure was under no illusions as to the tough task that was ahead of him.
“I knew that there was only one option, working hard every minute,” said the University of Pretoria-bound defender.
Jaure’s work ethic and good reading of the game prompted coach Kallisto Pasuwa to relegate the then skipper Magariro to the bench and allow the youngster to slot into the heart of the defence alongside the now excommunicated Zhokinyi.
Jaure became a pivot of a defence that conceded just 15 goals in 30 matches as Pasuwa’s men defended their Premiership title and also won the Mbada Diamonds Cup.
This saw the defender named as a Soccer Star of the Year finalist.
Jaure says Pasuwa is his hero: “If I were to pick one person as my hero, no doubt that person would be Mudhara Mana (Pasuwa).
“Had it not been for the faith he showed in me, I probably would be shuttling between teams in the lower divisions.
“It was a very brave decision for him to tinker with a defence that had delivered the league title the previous season so as to accommodate me, and for this I will forever be indebted to him,” Jaure told The Sunday Mail on the sidelines of a Dynamos training session on Thursday.
But the journey to foreign climes has been full of frustrations.
Legendary Dynamos defender and Supersport United assistant coach Kaitano Tembo’s reported criticism of the 1,7-metre defender’s lack of height and his failure to secure a visa to travel to Turkey for trials with an unnamed club rank among Jaure’s major lows.
Now exactly two-and-a-half years after marking his top flight debut, Jaure is waving goodbye to link-up with former Dynamos teammates Washington Arubi and Denver Mukamba at Tuks.
He intends to use his Absa Premiership stint as a stepping stone to Europe.
“This move comes upon realisation that it is not easy to move to Europe from Zimbabwe because our league is not a favourite hunting ground with European teams.
“When I get to Pretoria, I will continue working hard knowing that I am in transit, it’s just a stepping stone for the bigger things I believe are yet to come,” said the former Churchill High pupil, who in January made history by captaining the Warriors to their first ever semi-finals of a continental tourney, CHAN.
As he leaves for new pastures, Yellow – as Jaure is fondly called – says he will miss the passionate DeMbare faithful to whom he had endeared himself over the past two years.
“The fans made me feel loved from the very first day I made my senior debut. These are the people who pushed me to work hard for every time I took to the field, I felt like I owed them a good performance,” said the player who can also do business as a defensive linkman or a rightback.
Football seems to run in the Jaure family with Partson’s young brother Prosper playing as an attacking midfielder at Division 1 side Highfield United.
