* Tabitha recognised for her remarkable feat of 18 league goals and 10 assists
* Mbappé for winning French Ligue 1 champions the Golden Boot Award with 27 goals
Maravi Express
Extraordinary performance by Malawi Scorchers captain Tabitha Chawinga continues as she scoops France’s National Professional Footballers Player-of-the-Year Award in the women category while the men’s category was taken by her counterpart at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), Kylian Mbappé.
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The 27-year-old was rewarded in recognition of her remarkable feat of 18 league goals and 10 assists, effectively shrugging off competition from teammates Grace Geyoro and Sakina Karchaoui — who also received nominations for the award alongside Lyon’s Lindsey Horan and Ada Hegerberg.
This new accolade comes in the heels of another she achieved during her extraordinary season with Inter Milan women’s side last season, as she became the first-ever African footballer to earn the Golden Boot Award in Italy’s Serie A Feminine with 23 goals in 21 games.
She was then on loan at Inter Milan from Chinese Women’s Super League side, Wuhan FC who eventually released her to PSG for yet another loan spell this season.
The Malawian also won the Player-of-the-Season awards in the 2018 and 2019 seasons in the Chinese Women’s Super League while on the books of Jiangsu Suning, before she joined her younger sister Temwa at Wuhan.
However, apart from winning many local awards in Malawi, Tabitha has never been recognised in Africa despite four nominations for Confederation of Africa Football Women’s Player of the Year Award.
With 18 goals and 10 assists with one more match to go, Tabitha is leading the individual stats as her club faces Lyon in the Championship final on Friday at the Groupama Stadium.
The two sides also met in the UEFA Women’s Champions League semifinal in which Lyon won 5-3 on aggregate — 2-1 in the second leg on April 28.
Tabitha in action against Lyon on April 28
However, PSG — at 45 points — are seven points away from the French women league leaders, Lyon (52 points) and well on the way to winning the championship once again.
Held at the Pavillon d’Armenonville in Paris, the awards ceremony was also a night in which PSG cleaned most of the award in which custodian Gianluigi Donnarumma bagged the Goalkeeper-of-the-Year gong after finishing the season with 11 clean sheets while his keeper’s teammate Warren-Zaïre Emery received the Young Player-of-the-Year accolade as their coach Éric Roy was named Coach-of-the-Year.
Tabitha was also named in women’s Ligue 1’s Best XI alongside Chiamaka Nnadozie; Sakina Karchaoui; Griedge Mbock; Elisa De Almeida; Ellie Carpenter; Lindsey Horan; Grace Geyoro; Inès Benyahia; Eugénie Le Sommer and Delphine Cascarino.
Mbappé is also in the men’s Best XI alongside Gianluigi Donnarumma; Bradley Locko; Leny Yoro; Marquinhos; Achraf Hakimi; Vitinha; Pierre Lees-Melou; Waren Zaire-Emery; Ousmane Dembélé and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang.
Meanwhile, the night was a perfect farewell gift for Mbappé — who has won the award five times, including four on the bounce — as he is leaving the French Ligue 1 champions.
The World Cup winner has been the talk of the town since he formalized his departure from PSG to join Spanish club Real Madrid following the end of his contract with PSG in June.
President of France’s National Professional Footballers, Vincent Labrune thanked Mbappé, saying: “What I remember above all is that Kylian stayed for 7 years. He could have chosen to leave. He made Ligue 1 and France shine.
“For all these magical moments, I wanted to thank you. I also wanted to thank your club and your president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who made this possible.
“I hope you achieve your dreams and I hope that you will come back in a few seasons because the story is not over. I hope that we will see you in France again,” he said.—Reporting by Supersport and Forbes.com
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