Champions League : "I was stripped naked twice in front of my opponents"… The obstacle course to playing football for Tabitha Chawinga, the PSG scorer
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.
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.
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. .
- For more: Elrisala website and for social networking, you can follow us on Facebook
- Source of information and images “svoboda“
