Jarrison reflects on first DeMbare season
DYNAMOS livewire winger Jarrison Selemani is happy with his transition from Northern Region Division One football side DZ Evangelical in 2018 to become one of the top performers for the Harare giants last season.
Selemani, who graduated from Aces Youth Soccer Academy in 2017, was Dynamos’ second top scorer with four goals in a season the club was largely composed of inexperienced players.
The 22-year-old winger was outscored by striker Evans Katema, who began the season at relegated Mushowani and finished second in the race for the golden boot.
“I graduated from Aces Academy in 2017 and joined a Division One team called DZ Evangelical in 2018. In 2019, I moved to Dynamos, where my stay so far has been an extremely happy one,” Selemani told NewsDay Sport yesterday.
“I am happy with my performance last year. It was my first full season and I came out as second top goalscorer for the team. It’s something which is really good for my career and I can always get better as well as achieve great things with the club.
“Playing for a team like Dynamos is not a stroll in the park. Dynamos are a different animal altogether and demand hard work, determination and a heart for the team. There is no room for complacency because you have to be on top of your game week-in week-out. You also don’t want to disappoint the fans and as a player, it teaches you things like how to handle pressure.”
Growing up in the high-density suburb of Mbare, often regarded as the ceremonial home of football, Selemani also played basketball, but he loved football more.
“I have always loved football for as long as I can remember and football is my life. I also played basketball and I am quite good at it, but football is everything to me, so I had to choose football,” he said.
The Dynamos winger is the kind of player who is not afraid to take on defenders and does not miss a chance to try new tricks, which is often the downside to his game.
“I like to dribble and try new things because I am inspired by Paul Pogba. I try to watch every game he plays. I observe how he does his things and I try to implement them at training so that I can reproduce them during the games,” he revealed.
Like many other local footballers, Selemani said he was frustrated by the delay in the start of the 2020 Premier League season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s difficult because everything was ready, the mind and the body. The fitness was there because we were about to start the season and then this pandemic brought everything to a halt. But still, I have been working hard on my own during this (lockdown) period,” he said.