* Contracted for two years and will be deputised by Joseph Malizani, Robert Ng’ambi and Bridget Chirwa, coach for Malawi national schools girls team
* Our job now, together with the Technical members at the Academy is to accelerate, train and expose the talents to competitions that we will be playing.
“We will be preparing the kids for the future, preparing them on how they can adapt in foreign leagues and preparing them to compete at the higher level in future
Maravi Express
Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has unveiled FIFA-appointed talent development scheme (TDS) coach Thabo Senong from South Africa in charge of the FAM Luwinga Inclusive Academy.
A report by Fam.mw says the former South Africa’s Bafana Bafana and U-20 head coach, has been contracted for two years and will be deputised by Joseph Malizani, Robert Ng’ambi and Bridget Chirwa, coach for Malawi national schools girls team.
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe yesterday, FAM president Fleetwood Haiya described Senong’s arrival as a big milestone in the quest to transforming the game in the country.
“I believe your presence at the academy will produce the fruits of my dreams of bringing quality players to our game,” Haiya is quoted as saying. “We would like to develop an export strategy so that some of the players should play their football abroad.
“Malawi has football talent, and what was missing in us was how to put this talent together and groom it for our game. Looking at how the boys and girls performed at the just ended CAF schools’ zonal competition in Namibia where the girls have qualified for continental phase of CAF schools’ championship and the boys missed by an inch, is enough evidence that we have talent in Malawi.
“We have the Chawinga sisters who are great women players at world stage. I have no doubt that Luwinga will breed others just soon and together we shall build the legacy.”
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Haiya further hailed FIFA for the program, saying Malawi football will never be the same in few years to come.
The academy opened in September with 42 players, 27 boys and 15 girls who are based in Mzuzu and schooling at Wukani Education Center Mzuzu.
On his part, Senong said he is looking forward to serve in the project to help Malawi FA reach of player education and development: “Our job now, together with the Technical members at the Academy is to accelerate, train and expose the talents to competitions that we will be playing.
“We will be preparing the kids for the future, preparing them on how they can adapt in foreign leagues and preparing them to compete at the higher level in future.”
The talent development scheme is a FIFA project headed by former Arsenal coach, Arsene Wenger, who is FIFA’s chief of global football development programme aimed at increasing the global competitiveness in men’s and women’s national team football and supporting FIFA member associations at youth level.
Meanwhile, Malawi national schools girls team members have presented to FAM president Haiya, the silver medal and the Fair Play award which they won from the just ended CAF African Schools Championship-COSAFA qualifiers in Namibia.
The girls finished second after losing 1-3 to South Africa in the final but will still represent the Council for Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) alongside, South Africa, who already qualified as defending Champions.
Alongside the the silver medal and the Fair Play award, Malawi girls’ Rejoice Silungwe was lauded for being the only player to score against South Africa in the final while in the boys category, striker Okester Kanyenda winning the Golden Boot with four goals.
A report by COSAFA Media indicates that Silungwe was the first to score against the tough South Africans, who beat Namibia 13-0 in the group stages — but South Africa hit back almost immediately through the competition’s top scorer Leonay Kock with 11 goals, who ended with a brace in the game and the other by Lethuthando Mthembu.
Rejoice Silungwe
Okester Kanyenda
In the group matches, the Malawi girls team drew 2-2 with Namibia, beat Lesotho 5-0 and Zambia 3-0 before overcoming Zimbabwe 2-1 in the semifinals to date the South Africans.
The Malawi girls will appear at the continental showpiece finals for the first time having failed to do so in the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023 and coach Bridget Chirwa is quoted by Fam.mw as saying: “Now that we have qualified, we will go back to the drawing board and work on our weaknesses and prepare for next year’s final.”
Chirwa indicated that despite the defeat to South Africa, her team played well at the tournament and in the final: “We know South Africa are a very good team but we told them to be first on the ball against South Africa.
“South Africa is a good team, but we are also the best. There were eight teams, but we managed to reach the final — which is not a mean achievement.
The Malawi boys’ team were eliminated in the semifinal after losing to South Africa but the consolation was striker Okester Kanyenda winning the Golden Boot while Malawi team also took home the Fair Play award.
In the group stages, the boys teams beat Namibia 6-0, Lesotho 4-0 and lost 0-3 to Zambia in final group match but they still booked a place in the semifinals.
South Africa boys were crowned champions after beating Zambia 4-2 on penalties having played to a 1-1 draw, as both the boys and the girls achieved 100% record in the competition having won both categories in the previous two editions in 2022 and 2023.
The boys also had to come from behind in their final as Sydney Zulu profited from a goalkeeper error to give Zambia the lead in the first half but South Africa equalised in the second period through Luthando Mkhize for the match to go into penalty shoot-out; Zambia’s William Zulu won the Golden Glove for the boys and South Africa girls’ Mia Heneke earning the best goalkeeper accolade.—Content by Fam.mw & COSAFA; edited by Maravi Express