BY DANIEL NHAKANISO A FEW days after being reported to be the lowest paid in the English Premier League, Zimbabwe international Jordan Zemura is reportedly considering whether to put pen to paper on a new contract at AFC Bournemouth.
The English tabloid newspaper Daily Star, citing Spotrac, an online sports system for team payrolls, salary cap breakdowns, and player contracts reported last week that Zemura is the lowest paid player in the league after Bournemouth were promoted from the Championship.
Zemura is reportedly on a yearly salary of just £20,000, meaning that Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the highest paid player in the division takes home £26million more than the 22-year-old Zimbabwean every year from salary alone.
The Zimbabwean star’s very modest contract which he signed while he was still with the club’s under-21 side is due to expire at the end of the current season and Bournemouth is hopeful that he will sign a contract extension soon.
Zemura joined the Cherries in the summer of 2019, following a successful trial period and initially played for the club’s development sides, rising from the Under-18s before making his first-team breakthrough.
After breaking into the Cherries’ first-team squad last season, Zemura had a clause activated to extend his stay on the south coast for the current campaign after turning down an offer of a new deal towards the end of last season.
However, the club’s manager Scott Parker remains optimistic that the talented left-back and his fellow academy product Jaidon Anthony will both agree to new terms to extend their stays at the Premier League side.
He was speaking ahead of the Cherries’ return to the English Premier League, where they were scheduled to face Marvelous Nakamba’s Aston Villa in their opening match of the new season yesterday.
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Asked whether he was optimistic of a positive outcome on the renewals, Parker said: “Yeah, I hope so. I hope that will be the case. I hope there’s a resolution to both of them. I don’t know at this present moment in time exactly where that is sitting.”
Zemura joined the club in 2019 and soon grew in stature after impressing at the beginning of last season’s campaign. He went on to play a pivotal role for the Cherries, playing 34 times in the Championship.
The exciting left-back was also called up to the Zimbabwe national team squad for their African Cup of Nations campaign, featuring twice after recovering from injury.
Also 22, Anthony has excelled at left-wing under Parker, playing 45 times, scoring eight and assisting a further six goals.
Having joined from Arsenal in 2016, Anthony is another proud product of Bournemouth’s academy and his friendship with Zemura has blossomed on and off the field.
Zemura was recently linked with a move to fellow Premier League side West Ham with the British sports radio station talkSPORT reporting that the roving left-back could leave Bournemouth this summer with just 12 months remaining on his contract.
The six-capped Zimbabwe international was born in Lambeth, South London, and the publication suggested that a return to England’s capital city may well appeal to him.
