National News

Tabitha makes CAF top-five shortlist

Malawi women’s football icon Tabitha Chawinga has for the first time made it into the top-five shortlist of players nominated for the 2019 African Women’s Footballer of the Year Award.

In the past two years, the China-based women’s football national team captain had been making it into the top-10 list, but this time around she has weighed heavier on Confederation of African Football (CAF) list as she is in the top-five alongside Nigerian Osisat Oshiala, Cameroonians Ajara Nchout Njoya and Gabrielle Onguene and South African Thembi Katlana.

Tabitha (R) in action against Kenya recently

In the final shortlist, the 23-year-old Chawinga is the only one that did not feature at the recent African Women’s Championship and the Women’s World Cup.

Among the five, Oshiala and Katlana are the previous winners of the accolade, having done it in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

“I am at a loss for words to describe my excitement with this news. It shows my talent is being appreciated on the continent and I thank the Almighty for giving me this talent,” said Chawinga yesterday.

The latest development comes after the free-scoring striker reclaimed the Golden Goot Award in the Chinese Women’s Super League with 11 goals and inspired Jiangsu Suning FC to its first league title in years.

She also won two top-scorers awards in two cup competitions after scoring 15 and nine goals, respectively, to win the Player-of-the-Year-Award in China.

Just last week, she missed the Golden Boot Award by a whisker at the inaugural Asian Women’s Club Championship after finishing second to eventual winner Mina Tanaka of Japanese outfit Nippon TV Beleza. She was just three goals behind.

In 2019, she led the Malawi national women’s football team to second round finish in the 2020 Olympic qualifiers after losing 5-3 on aggregate to Kenya’s Harambe Starlets in a two-legged tie.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu yesterday said the local soccer governing body is happy that Chawinga continues to hoist the country’s flag high.

“Tabitha is a machine. She deserves to be African Player of the Year. If our national team was very competitive enough to play at the World Cup or the Africa Championship finals, she could have stood a very good chance. She is in a class of her own and we are proud of her,” he said.

Chawinga has always been a prolific scorer both in domestic and foreign leagues since her professional football debut with Swedish league side Kvarnsveden IK in 2014.

She has, so far, won five top-scorers accolades as she grabbed her first foreign league golden boot on her debut season with Kvarnsveden in 2014 before repeating the feat in 2015 and in 2017.

In the same year, she was named Forward of the Year during the Swedish Football Awards ahead of the then World Player of the Year FC Barcelona’s Lieke Martens and she was nominated for the African Women Pootball Player of the Year Award.

Last year, Chawinga won the golden boot in her debut season in the Chinese league with 17 goals, seven ahead of second-placed Oshoala. 

Related Articles

Back to top button