COSAFA awards elude Temwa, Tabitha in
She stood proudly as the world’s top goal scorer last year, but US-based women’s football star Temwa Chawinga’s name is conspicuously missing on the list of nominees for the Cosafa Women’s Footballer of the Year Award.
The solace though for the Scorchers is that her France-based sister Tabitha Chawinga has been nominated alongside Zambian duo of Barbara Banda and Rachael Kundananji.
But in an interview, Temwa, who won the 2023 Cosafa Women’s Championship Player of the Tournament and Golden Boot awards after inspiring the Scorchers to their maiden regional championship honours, played down her exclusion in an interview yesterday.
Sounding calm and relaxed, the 25-year-old said: “It’s the way it is. We have to respect the organisers’ decision.
“Probably, there are factors they considered to determine the nominees and maybe that is why I am not there.
“I just want to congratulate the nominees, including my sister and I wish them all the best.”
The Kansas City Current women’s striker scored 63 goals last year for both club and country, that saw her hog the limelight.
She won golden boots in the Chinese Women’s SuperLeague,
Chinese Women’s FA Cup and Chinese National Women’s Cup with Wuhan Jiangda.
In the league, Temwa scored 15 goals more than her runner-up Banda, who is one of the nominees.
She scored nine goals more than men’s world top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo who netted 54.
But Banda and Kundananji inspired Zambia’s Copper Queens to qualify for the Women’s World Cup, Women’s Africa Cup of Nations and, just a few days ago, the 2024 Paris Olympics. Kundananji also scored 28 goals for Madrid before her $800 000 (about K1.3 billion) world transfer record move to the US.
On the other hand, Tabitha, who is on a season-long loan at Paris Saint Germain, won the Italian Serie A Women’s golden boot with 23 goals to become the first African to achieve the feat.
She is also the leading scorer in the French First Division with 17 goals and is joint leading scorer in the Coupe de France with four goals.
Tabitha could not be reached for her comment yesterday.
Football analyst Kevin Moyo believes that the Zambian duo’s exploits with the Copper Queens gave them an edge.
“World Cup, Olympics and Wafcon are big tournaments. But it’s a tight call really when you consider Temwa’s exploits at the Cosafa tournament.
“It’s hard to take, but that’s football for you. I am certain that if the nominees were four, definitely Temwa would have been one of them.”
The inaugural Cosafa Awards are set for April 19 in Durban, South Africa.
Apart from Tabitha, three other Malawian women footballers have also been nominated in different categories.
Rose Kabzere and Leticia Chinyamula have been nominated for the most promising player award while Mercy Sikelo is among the nominees for best goalkeeper award.
Multi-award winning Malawian journalist Peter Kanjere is also in the panel of judges that will choose the winners
