Temwa Chawinga heads to US to play for Kansas City Current

Temwa Chawinga has signed a two-year contract with Kansas City Current and is expected to join the team for preseason camp this month, according to the club’s website.

“Temwa is an exciting player and we’re very happy she has chosen to come to Kansas City,” the website quotes the team’s general manager Camille Ashton.

“She has found success in Sweden and China at the club level and has been incredibly important to the accomplishments of her home country of Malawi.”

The team’s head coach Vlatko Andonovski is also quoted as saying they were very excited to having Temwa join Kansas City: “She is a dynamic player who has shown she can find the goal at every stop along her path. She will be fun to watch.”

The 25-year-old forward, who captained Malawi Scorchers in their first-ever international title by winning the 2023 Confederation of Southern African Football Association (COSAFA) Championship, moves from China where she has spent four seasons playing for Wuhan Jianghan University FC.

She helped the club to four straight Chinese Women’s Super League Championships and scored 83 goals in 84 games played with the club and prior to that, she scored 55 goals from 2017-2019 for Kvarnsvedens IK in Sweden.

On the international stage, Chawinga made her debut for the Scorchers in 2016 playing alongside her sister Tabitha in which she recorded her first international goal in the match against Zambia.

Since then, she’s made 14 appearances and recorded 22 goals for Malawi and at the 2023 COSAFA Women’s Championship, Temwa earned the Golden Boot with nine goals and was honored with the Golden Ball, recognizing the tournament’s best player.

“I’m excited to join the Kansas City Current,” she is quoted as saying by the club’s website. “This team is world class in every way, from the facilities to the environment at the club. I am excited to get started and hopefully bring home a championship.”

Kansas City Current will start preseason training later this month as the team preps for the 2024 campaign and the first season in the world’s first stadium purpose-built for women’s professional soccer, CPKC Stadium.

Temwa is third on the ranking of Women’s World Best Top Division Goal Scorer 2023 — identified after bagging 30 goals in China’s Super League playing for Wuhan.

This ranking is managed by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), which was founded in 1984 in Leipzig, Germany and is registered in Zurich, Switzerland.

Temwa is just four goals away from the top taken by Veronica Corral — playing for Pachuca in Mexico where she scored 34 goals and on second place is Alicia Cervantes — also playing in Mexico for Chivas, who scored 31.

Temwa was described by IFFHS as “the revelation from Malawi — record woman in China’s Super League” following her exceptional exploits there alongside her sister Tabitha, who is on loan from Wuhan at Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).

Temwa has beaten 2023 African Player of the Year, Nigerian Asisat Oshoala, who scored 22 goals playing for Barcelona FC in Spain and is number 14.

Six of the IFFHS top 10 scorer ranking are from Mexico’s Liga MX and 8 in the top 15 with Kirsty Howat is the best European player and Romana Nunez the best South American goalscorer in 2023.

Second-placed Alicia Cervantes is the most regular goalscorer in the decade (ranked 2 in 2021, 4 in 2022, 2 in 2023) before Tessa Wullaert (ranked 6 in 2021, 10 in 2022 and 10 in 2023).

All goals scored in the top 40 national leagues worldwide are taken into account — the period from January 1 to December 31 and tie-breaking criteria at equal number of goals is through strength of the league.

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