PSG star Tabitha Chawinga of Malawi overcomes obstacles en route to Champions League success
Tabitha Chawinga wasn’t always a prolific scorer. The Paris Saint-Germain star played goalkeeper in rural Malawi as a young girl.
A collision with a defender changed all that. Her mouth was bloodied.
“After that I stopped playing the goal, because I was afraid as well (of) my mom,” Chawinga says.
Her mother frowned on her playing soccer and would slap Chawinga to get her to stop, she says. It’s one of the many obstacles she’s faced during her rise to stardom. As a teenager, she was considered so good that one time she was forced to remove her clothes on the field to prove to the other team that she’s female.
The 27-year-old Chawinga’s confidence and positive attitude have helped her excel on three continents. She left Malawi for the lower divisions of Sweden at age 17 and later played in China before joining Inter Milan for a season, and now PSG.