Tabitha Chawinga keeps making history as she becomes first Malawi woman footballer to score in UEFA Champions League

Tabitha beats Mary Earps to give PSG the lead.—Pictures by Martin Rickett, PA

* First UEFA Champions League match, first goal though it wasn’t enough to get us a win

* Hopefully we will win at home. Thanks for the support and prayers—Tabitha on her Facebook page

By Duncan Mlanjira

Tabitha Chawinga continues to make history after she became the first Malawi woman football to score in the UEFA Women’s Champions League match when she netted the first for Paris St. Germain (PSG) in their 2-2 draw on Monday night.

A video clip of the goal shows Chawinga receiving a long pass from the centre in the 53rd minute and she broke through her markers to find the ball to tap with her left foot beating the advancing goalkeeper Mary Earps in the goal area.

A report by the BBC says the goal rattled Manchester United who then made a substitution, bringing in Melvine Malard, who is on loan from Lyon, who headed in from a corner in the second half to cancel out Tabitha’s opener in the second qualifying-round tie.

The report further says England goalkeeper Earps was kept busy in the first half with her saves as she continued to gather in crosses and parry away shots from PSG.

An injury to PSG’s Oriane Jean-Francois, who was taken off on a stretcher after appearing to hurt her ankle in a challenge, halted play momentarily and in doing so, helped United regroup.

From then on, the English side were relentless in their pursuit of an equaliser and it deservedly arrived after 70 minutes.

The 27-year-old Tabitha, who is on loan from Wuhan Jianghan, was then substituted by Bachmann in the 84th.

On website, UEFA wrote: “Paris led early in the second half through Tabitha Chawinga, the first Malawian to score in UEFA competition, on a night when she was already becoming the only player from her nation to take part in the Women’s Champions League.”

And on her Facebook page, Tabitha said: “First UEFA Champions League match, first goal though it wasn’t enough to get us a win. Hopefully we will win at home. Thanks for the support and prayers.”

She becomes the third Malawian to player in the UEFA Champions League after men’s striker Esau Kanyenda and former Nyasa Big Bullets player Charles Petro.

Kanyenda who played for FC Lokomotiv Moscow between 2005 and 2007, was the first Malawian to play in the UEFA Champions League but he never scored any goal while Charles Petro also featured when he played for Sheriff Tiraspol in 2020.

Tabitha, who has been nominated on four previous occasions for the Africa Women’s Player of the Year award but always missed out despite her incredible successes, refuses to lose sweat as she remains hopeful her time will come — as she told CAFonline in June.

This followed her great performance when she won the Golden Boot award after scoring 23 goals in 21 games for Inter Milan — becoming the first African woman to win the prestigious title in Italy.

She was also on loan from Wuhan Jianghan and she told CAFonline ahead of the prestigious Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards on December 11 in Morocco that: “Every player should desire to get that award. My eyes remain fixed on the prize.

“All in good time, my hands remain expectant whilst I continue to play good football. I was born with a gift. My duty has been to nurture the gift and nurturing a gift requires a willingness to continue learning and improving.

“So I am focused, I work hard, I am a team player, and always willing to learn and be exposed to new developments and skills in football.”

Chawinga’s feat in Italy also made her become the only African woman to win the league Golden Boot in three countries abroad after finishing as the top scorer once in Sweden and thrice in China.

She told CAFOnline.com: “I feel honoured but I am more humbled by the reaction from the African continent and my fellow countrymen and women in Malawi.

“I am simply honored to have been bestowed a gift to play football and to share this gift with the world. It’s a humbling experience for a young girl like me coming from one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi.

“I thank Africa and my country Malawi for the unwavering support and for celebrating me on this feat. And I will most definitely continue carrying the African and Malawi flag in my future exploits. This means I can aim beyond the sky. So I look forward to more challenges in the game of football.”

On the four occasions she was nominated for the CAF Women African Player of the Year, she was beaten to it by Nigerian star Asisat Oshoala in 2022, 2019 and 2017 and by Thembi Kgatlana in 2018.

As Tabitha is making history in Europe, her sister is helping the Malawi Scorchers towards their first-ever COSAFA Women’s Championship as they are in the semifinals having recorded a 100% record of the group stages.

The Scorchers were first to qualify for the semifinals after beating South Africa 4-3 — with Temwa claiming a hat-trick before scoring four goals when they annihilated eSwatini 8-0 in the second game.

Temwa was rested on Monday against whom they beat 3-1 on Tuesday  through goals from Vanessa Chikupila, Leticia Chinyamula and Asimenye Simwaka and will next face Mozambique in the last four.

Temwa Chawinga is the top scorer with 7 goals as she eyes the Golden Boot, followed by 5 from Thubelihle Shamase from South Africa but is not in contention as Banyana-Banyana were eliminated from the 2023 edition.

The Scorchers finished top of Group A with nine points from three matches, three points above second-placed South Africa, who claimed  3-0 win over eSwatini in another match.

From 16 matches played, 57 goals were scored with the biggest victory by Malawi’s 8-0 victory against eSwatini. Other scorers in contention for the Golden Boot are Sarah Jere and Fridah Kabwe (3 and both from Zambia) and 2 from Malawi’s Leticia Chinyamula and Sabinah Thom as well as Deolinda Gove (Mozambique), Luvunga (Angola) and Kesegofetse Mochawe (Botswana).

Single goal scorers from Malawi are Vanessa Chikupira, Rose Kadzere, Carolyne Mathyola and Asimenye Simwaka.

Scorchers coach Lovemore Fazili, who rested some key players against Madagascar — Chawinga, Madyina Ngulube, Lyna James and Chimwemwe Madise — is quoted by Fam.mw as urging his charges to raise their game in the semi-finals.

“We have to work hard and be focused to qualify for the final,” he is quoted as saying. “We should not relax and start thinking  that we are already champions.

“We do not know much about Mozambique but we have to be seriousand be ready for them,” said Fazili, who was also pleased that the Scorchers finished the group stage with three wins.

“We were in tough group considering that we were playing against hosts South Africa but after we beat them, we had confidence that we can go through.  We managed to get nine points which is a good record for us,” he said.

Mozambique booked a semifinal berth with Malawi after they finished as the overall best runner-up after beating Angola 1-0 to qualify with seven points from three matches, behind defending champions Zambia on goal-difference.

Zambia will face Group C winners between Zimbabwe and Botswana who meet today with Zimbabwe at the summit with six points and Botswana behind them with four points while Namibia and Lesotho will play for pride in the dead rubber last match.

South Africa beat eSwatini 3-0 to finish second in Group A with six points but was not enough to qualify as best runners-up. Even the hat-trick from Thubelishle Shamase couldn’t reach Temwa’s seven goals as she has finished with five.