By Farayi Machamire
HARARE – Taurayi Tugwete may be just one metre tall and doing sixth grade at Hartman House Primary School but his football skills have already attracted the attention of Spanish and world giants Barcelona.
Tugwete trail blazed into the school’s history books and appeared onto the radar of reigning European and Club World champions Barcelona after making last year’s Lusitania Primary School five aside tournament a one man show.
The 11-year-old played five games during the tournament and scored a staggering 19 goals in the process at an astonishing rate of 3,8 goals per game. To put Tugwete’s scoring rate into context is the fact that Hartman House goals scored during the tournament stood at 23.
This achievement quickly reached the ears of the Catalans’ scouts who tried to organise a trial for Tugwete.
“The scouts from Barcelona approached the mother and the mother told us about of the scouts’ intentions to have Tugwete go over that side for trials at Barcelona juniors,” Zimbabwe Coaches Association president and Hartman House coach Bekhi Nyoni told the Daily News on Sunday.
Chamisa Under-12 star travels to AC Milan for trials
Headmaster Paul Nenjarama confirmed the Barcelona proposal but admits he was the first to caution the budding soccer star’s parents on allowing their son to attend trials at the club famous youth academy La Masia in Catalonia.
“I told the parents that if you let him go then you could lose him,” Nenjerama said during Seed Co handover ceremony last week. Tugwete’s coach Nyoni marvelled at the young lad’s talent.
“Generally the boy is very talented,” Nyoni said. “When I saw Mathew Rusike when he was still in primary I knew he was destined for dizzy heights. And now when I look at Taurayi Tugwete playing I can see that he can play for any team, he just needs to remain focused and with the right guidance the sky is the limit for the boy.”
Tugwete will be part of the Hartman House soccer team set to tour South Africa next month. In Durban the team is billed to compete against Amazulu juniors and Juventus juniors amongst an array of other primary schools in the third largest city of South Africa.
Tugwete evokes a similar story to that of 10-year-old Simon Solobala who amongst three others was scouted by AC Milan agents last year. The three were invited for trials at six-time European Champions winners side AC Milan after being selected from a field of more than 1 500 contenders at Churchill High School last year.
However, unlike Tugwete who is growing up in a more privileged background, Solobala owned no soccer boots to play the game of his heart prior to the AC Milan opportunity. The speedy left-wing grabbed the opportunity with both hands and ventured into the AC Milan junior camp.
And true to form Solobala was the voted the most valuable player of the tournament and brought home the floating runners-up trophy for his efforts. Daily News
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