After scoring a hat-trick as Scorchers thrashed Lesotho 3-0 in the second international friendly match at Mpira Stadium in Chiwembe Township, Blantyre last Sunday, forward Asimenye Simwaka celebrated with fist-pumping in front of an ecstatic crowd.
Passionate Malawi Women’s National Football Team supporters danced and chanted victory songs, including ‘Ona Pangolin’ while pointing at the 28-year-old, who notched five goals in just two games following a brace in the first match against Lesotho that also ended 3-0 on Friday last week.
But what football fans do not know is that their ‘Pangolin’ is going through a lot of frustrating moments in her football career, especially missing seven lucrative out-right deals with some foreign women’s football clubs this year.
So far, Top African clubs such as TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Yanga FC of Tanzania alongside overseas teams in the United States of America (USA), Romania and Israel have been hunting for her signature, but none of them materialised.
“It is my dream to play professional football in top foreign leagues and what has been happening to me so far is very frustrating. It pains me to see all of such opportunities going up in smoke,” said Simwaka, who is also a prolific short distance runner.
The MDF Lioness FC forward is more than willing to take up a football opportunity in a foreign country as soon as it beckons and as soon as she is given the green light to try her luck.
“Recently, a USA-based football club came with an offer that included a scholarship while an Israeli club offered a lucrative deal with a salary of over $2 000 equivalent to K3.5 million, but I later learned everything fell through. I wonder what is really happening to me,” she said.
“I still keep my fingers crossed that one day my dream will finally come true. My major worry is that football is a short career and, one day, such opportunities will stop coming.”
But Simwaka’s worries are justifiable considering that other Scorchers’ most outstanding players are enjoying the fruits of their football talents with mouthwatering deals in foreign leagues.
For example, the likes of forwards Tabitha Chawinga and Rose Kabzere are making big money at French top league clubs Olympique Lyonnais Women and Montipeller Women, respectively, while free-scoring striker Temwa Chawinga is making headlines in the USA with elite club KC Current.
In an interview, MDF Lioness head coach John Kaputa yesterday said he could not comment on the matter as he was away from office.
He added that it could be difficult to get a comment from the director of sports at the MDF, as there have been some changes in the position recently.
But football analyst Lucy Kadzongwe yesterday said it is high time the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) intervened in Asimenye’s challenges so that her dream comes into reality.
Kadzongwe said: “It is sad that people with the potential to fly the Malawian flag are frustrated. We need to learn from the Chawinga sisters, who are making records year-in-year-out.”
“Just imagine if Malawi had more than five Europe-based players, what a great team the Scorchers would be?”
Kadzongwe believes that it could be good if authorities take action with speed to give greenlight when opportunities of playing abroad or in top foreign leagues beckon for the girls.
