Scorchers captain Tabitha Chawinga has played down her failure to make the final list for the 2024 CAF Women’s Footballer of the Year Award, describing it as “one of those things”.
Tabitha and her sister Temwa, who plies her trade in the US, failed to make the final top three list announced by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on Thursday night.
In an interview on Friday, the France-based forward, sounding at peace with herself, said: “It shouldn’t worry us much, these things happen my brother. God’s time is the best, let’s trust in Him.”
This was the fifth time for Tabitha to be nominated for the award while Temwa, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, has been nominated twice.
The sisters had one of their best club performances during the period under review in which Tabitha won the golden boot in her debut season in the French women’s top-flight with Paris Saint Germain (PSG) Feminine on loan from Chinese Super League side Wuhan Jiangda before joining Olympique Lyonnais.
The 28-year-old also won the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Players’ Player of the Season awards.
She guided PSG to a runners-up finish in the league to Lyon, won the Coupe de France and reached the semi-finals of the Uefa Women’s Champions League.
On her part, Temwa won the MVP Award in her debut season in the National Women’s Soccer Leaue, beating Zambian Barbara Banda of Orlando Pride, who has made the top-three list.
Temwa also won the golden boot with a record 21 goals, four adrift of second-placed Banda, but the latter inspired her club to win the NWSL title.
Banda also led the Zambia National Women’s Football Team to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics where she became the first player in the tournament’s history to score hat-tricks in back-to-back games, against the Republic of China and the Netherlands, despite her side going winless and exiting in the group stages.
Apart from Banda, the others who have made the final list are Morocco forward Sanaâ Mssoudy, who was nominated mainly for her exploits in the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League in which she was named Player of the Tournament and Nigeria goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie.
African football follower Felix Ngamanya Sapao said in an interview that while the Scorchers’ inactivity might have affected the Chawinga sisters chances, “but still their achievements at club level were too good to be ignored. After all, we also have the Moroccan making the final list because of her club exploits in the CAF Women’s Champions League”.
“Besides, CAF barred Barbara from taking part in the 2022 Wafcon over gender eligibility, but has nominated her for its award. It doesn’t add up to me,” he said.
Tabitha and Banda were also nominated for the Women’s Ballon d ‘Or, Cosafa Women’s Player of the Year and they are also in contention for Fifa’s Women’s Best Player.
The Malawian star is also the only African contender for the Global Soccer Awards Best Women’s Footballer while Banda won the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year.
The nominees in the CAF men’s Africa Player of the Year are Ivorian winger Simon Adingara of Brighton and Hove Albion, England, Guinean striker Serhou Guirassy of Borussia Dortmund in Germany, Moroccan Achraf Akim, who plays for French side PSG, Nigeria forward Ademola Lookman of Italian Serie A side Atalanta and South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams of Mamelodi Sundowns.
