“I was undressed twice in front of my opponents”… The obstacle course to playing football for Tabitha Chawinga, the PSG scorer

Arriving on loan in the summer of 2023 from Wuhan, the Malawian, who has 27 goals and 13 assists this season, will be Paris’ main offensive weapon in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Lyon on Saturday.

Unfailing determination. Beaten by her parents, stripped naked in front of her opponents and harassed on social networks, Tabitha Chawinga has experienced everything from humiliation. For one simple reason: she wanted to play football.

The first Malawian to have set foot on European pitches will play her first Champions League semi-final with Paris Saint-Germain in Lyon, Saturday April 20, for her first participation in the competition. An achievement which rewards the tenacity and character of the 27-year-old player, who had to start playing behind her parents’ backs.

Hit for wanting to play

Born in northern Malawi, a country wedged between Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique and one of the poorest in the world, Tabitha Chawinga was pushed to never embark on this path almost exclusively reserved for men (women being rather pushed towards netball, a derivative of basketball).

“MMy parents didn’t want me to play football. They felt that the sport was for men and preferred that I stay focused on school.”she declared in an interview given to AFP on Thursday April 18.

“Every time I came home, I had to face the harsh law of my parents. They whipped me so violently. Of course, I didn’t give up. I told my parents that the day they If they stopped beating me, that would be the day I stopped playing football.”

Tabitha Chawinga, Paris Saint-Germain striker

to the Guardian

Integrated into her school’s boys’ team, the current top scorer in D1 Arkema (18 goals) had to face mockery and disapproval from her community, who felt that her parents should not have let her play. .

In addition to the mockery, there were traumatic physical humiliations. “I was stripped naked twice in front of my opponents, she remembers in The AfricaBrief, Malawian media. Players from opposing teams protested my presence, thinking I was too strong to be a girl. It’s hard to explain the humiliation I felt.”

Having joined DD Sunshine FC in the capital Lilongwe at the age of 14, Chawinga left her country before she was even an adult to join Sweden and its third division, with a plane ticket paid for by the president of Sunshine.

In less than 20 matches, she scored 39 goals for the small club Krokom and gave them the title. The following year, she moved up a division by joining Kvarnsvedens and finished the season with 43 goals, with a title and a promotion to the Swedish elite at stake.

Best scorer and passer in D1

In parallel with her crazy rise, the Malawian continues to be mocked on social networks for her voice and her physique, considered masculine. “I have been forced to avoid social media. I have a Facebook page, but someone manages it for me. I also avoid public places. I wonder what is going on in the minds of those who intimidate and harass others”she lamented.

Top scorer in the Swedish (2017), Chinese (2018 and 2019) and Italian (2023) first divisions, Chawinga impresses wherever she goes and Paris, which she joined on loan in the summer of 2023 from her Wuhan club, does not no exception to the rule.

With 18 goals in D1 Arkema, she is six points ahead of 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg in the race for the championship’s top scorer trophy and is one of the very serious candidates for the title of best player of the season. .