Online Reporter
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
WHERE is Last Jesi?
Did he retire from football in his 20s?
Is he now into some lucrative business whose source of capital investment was the US$280 000 compensation from Sudanese side, Al Hilal Khartoum, that made him opt out of football?
Whatever the answers to these questions are, history will record that Mutare once produced a player who had the potential to become the best ever to come from the Eastern Highlands, but his career ended in furtive circumstances.
In fact, Jesi’s story is a perfect reminder, and a great lesson to those engaged with junior players’ talent development to safeguard, not only young footballers’ talents on the field of play, but equally important, their conduct off the field play.
Jesi came back home in 2021 following a nightmarish end to his football career in Sudan. The then 26-year-old midfielder was stranded in the
Arab country after authorities at his former club, Al Hilal, confiscated his passport and refused to pay him outstanding salaries.
The player, however, was later paid his outstanding salaries and received his passport back following the intervention of the
Footballers union of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean Embassies in Sudan and Tanzania.
Back then, Jesi’s manager, George Deda, told the media that the midfielder was relieved by the developments.
“I would like to thank Desmond Maringwa, the president of FUZ, for the excellent role he played. He worked round the clock to make sure that Jesi got his passport back.
“We also want to thank the Zimbabwean Embassy in Tanzania and the staff at the Zimbabwean Embassy in Sudan.
“We really didn’t understand the reason why Al Hilal officials had confiscated Jesi’s passport. It is a breach of international laws for one to be in possession of another person’s passport except for the issuing government, which is the Government of Zimbabwe. That is why we also engaged the Zimbabwean Embassies in Tanzania and Sudan.”
He had signed a three-year deal with the Sudanese giants in September the previous year for a reported US$65 000 fee.
He made an instant impact on arrival in Sudan when hescored on his debut as the Omdurman-based side drew 1-1 against Hay-Al-Arab in a Sudan Premier League match.
But, there were complaints that the club was always been paying his salary late.
Jesi featured for Al Hilal in five Champions League matches, and was named man-of-the-match in two games.
However, he was released by the club, barely seven months into his adventure. Jesi later got a golden handshake, in the region of US$280 000, for the alleged breach, after it emerged the decision to terminate his contract was not by mutual consent.
He was soon back on the market with some clubs on the continent reported to have shown interest in his services.
There were reports of a lot of inquiries on Jesi including three clubs from East Africa, and two from West Africa vying for his signature, not to mention a host of local clubs that showed interest in him including CAPS United, Dynamos and his parent club, Manica Diamonds and Ngezi Platinum Stars.
But upon his return and receipt of the US$280 000, Jesi’s football story ended!
Post Sport’s effort to trace where Jesi is, and what he is preoccupied with revealed that not even the people who once handled his football affairs and assisted him to rise as a professional footballer including Deda as well as the now defunct Africa Trust FC owner, Lovemore Mandimutsira, know his current whereabouts.
However, the rumour mill has it that Jesi is currently staying in Harare where he bought a house in Mbare after he initially bought another house in Hobhouse in Mutare.
Wherever he is, Jesi, is one former football player who did not reach his full potential due to issues that border on ill-discipline, known lack of basic education and other personal issues that the player could have handled better.
