Temwa Chaŵinga
Malawian footballer (born 1998)
Temwa Chaŵinga (born September 20, 1998) is a Malawian professional footballer who plays as a forward for the Kansas City Current of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Malawi national team. She won the NWSL Golden Boot and NWSL Most Valuable Player awards in both of her first two seasons with the Current.
The younger sister of Tabitha Chawinga, she joined her sister at Swedish club Kvarnsveden in 2017. Three years later, she moved to Wuhan Jianghan, winning four consecutive Chinese league titles and becoming the world's leading goal scorer in 2023. In 2024, she joined the Current and set the NWSL's single-season record with 20 league goals in her debut season. She led the Current to the NWSL Shield in dominant fashion in 2025.
Chawinga made her international debut for Malawi in 2016. In 2023, she led Malawi to their first COSAFA Women's Championship title.
01Early life
Chaŵinga was born on September 20, 1998, in Rumphi district, Northern Region, Malawi. She is the youngest of five children. She is of Tumbuka ethnicity and her name Temwa means "love" in Tumbuka language. Her older sister, Tabitha Chawinga, is also a professional footballer.
02Club career
Kvarnsveden
Chaŵinga signed with Swedish club Kvarnsvedens IK in 2017.
Wuhan Jianghan
In January 2020, Chaŵinga signed with Chinese Women's Super League club Wuhan Jianghan on a two-year contract. Her sister Tabitha played for Chinese reigning champions Jiangsu at the time. However, the COVID-19 pandemic soon began in Wuhan and the city was placed under lockdown for several months. After the league resumed play, Chawinga scored 9 goals in her debut season, second only to Shanghai Shengli's Barbra Banda, and helped Wuhan to the league title.
Chawinga was joined in Wuhan by her sister Tabitha in 2021. She fired 7 goals while her sister led the league with 9, repeating as league champions. In 2022, she led the league with 10 goals after Tabitha left for Inter Milan, helping win her third consecutive league title.
In 2023, Chawinga scored a total of 51 goals for Wuhan across all competitions and 12 for Malawi, making her the world's top goal scorer for the year, male or female. She helped the club to their record fourth consecutive league title.
Kansas City Current
2024: Record-setting Golden Boot and MVP
On January 3, 2024, Chaŵinga signed a two-year contract with the Kansas City Current. She scored her first goal for the Current in a 4-2 win over Angel City FC on March 30, becoming the first Malawian goalscorer in NWSL history. She quickly impressed with four goals in her first five games and was named to the NWSL Team of the Month for March/April. She scored six goals in four games in the month of June, leading her to be named NWSL Player of the Month. She overtook the Orlando Pride's Zambian striker Barbra Banda for the Golden Boot lead with a brace against the Houston Dash on June 28, helping the Current win their then league record 17th undefeated regular season game in a row.
Chaŵinga scored in a league-record eight regular-season games in a row from June 9 to September 7. She was again named NWSL Player of the Month with four goals in five games in September. She scored her 19th goal of the season in a 1-0 win over Bay FC on October 12, breaking Sam Kerr's single-season record of 18 goals in 2019. With her 20th goal against the San Diego Wave, she became the first NWSL player to score against all 13 other teams in one season. On October 26, she scored the only two goals in the final of the 2024 NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup against NJ/NY Gotham FC. Chawinga became the first player in NWSL history to score 20 goals in a single season and was awarded the NWSL Golden Boot. She was also voted NWSL Most Valuable Player. She was ranked by The Guardian as the 19th best player in the world in 2024.
2025: NWSL Shield and second MVP
On January 29, 2025, Chawinga signed a three-year contract extension to keep her with the Current through 2028. On May 16, she scored her 25th career NWSL regular-season goal in a 1-0 win over the Orlando Pride, becoming the fastest player to reach that mark (34 games). On September 20, she scored in a 2-0 win over the Seattle Reign, clinching the NWSL Shield with the best record in the league in record time. On October 18, she left the game against the Houston Dash with a leg injury in the first half.
Chawinga finished the 2025 regular season with 15 goals in 23 appearances to win the Golden Boot for a second consecutive time, joining Sam Kerr as the only players to win multiple times. The team set multiple NWSL records including most points, most wins, and fewest goals allowed in a season. She was unable to return from her injury for the playoffs as the Current were upset by Gotham FC in the quarterfinals. In 2025 she was named NWSL MVP for the second consecutive season, making her the first NWSL player to receive that award in two consecutive seasons. She was ranked by The Guardian as the sixth best player in the world in 2025.
2026
After missing the first four games of the season, Chawinga returned from injury on April 4, 2026, recording an assist in 40 minutes of action as the Current won 2-1 against Gotham FC. On May 10, she scored her first goals back, scoring the first regular season hat trick in franchise history with all three in a 3-0 win over the Chicago Stars, and was named NWSL Player of the Week.
03International Career
In September 2017 , Temwa Chawinga signed her first overseas contract with a Swedish club Kvarnsveden IK, a club her sister Tabitha Chawinga had played aswel, from Malawian club Blantyre zero FC .
In 2020, she left the club and signed a two-year deal with Wuhan Jianghan University FC where she helped them win four consecutive Chinese Super League titles and finishing in 2023 as the worlds leading global goalscorer with 63 goals..
In 2023 she made history by becoming the first Malawian player to join the NWSL by signing with Kansas City Current and she has won the golden boot two consecutive seasons in 2024 and 2025, secured back to back MVP awards while leading Kansas City current to their first NWSL shield. She received her first Ballon d'Or nomination in her career .
In 2026 she was in Rabat in Morocco with the national team at the 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations. Temwa Chawinga had scored an equaliser against Ghana and Mercy Sikelo's goalkeeping was solid. Rose Kadzere scored Malawi's second goal which won them a place in the semi-finals. More historically it earned a place for the Malawian team in the 2027 World Cup. Malawi has never competed before at that level. Malawi joined Algeria, Morocco and Cameroon to qualify for the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil. In the semifinals with Algeria, Malawi's scorchers qualified for the finals with Temwa Chawinga extending the lead by scoring the second goal in the first half of the game .Temwa Chawinga won the golden boot in the 2026 Women Africa Cup of Nations as the top goal scorer after the defeat in the finals where Malawi lost 3-0 to Cameroon .
04Personal life
Chaŵinga's older sister Tabitha is also a Malawian international footballer.
05Career statistics
International goals
Scores and results list Malawi's goal tally first
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 December 2016 | Nankhaka Stadium, Lilongwe, Malawi | Zambia | 1, 1 | 2-3 | Friendly |
| 2 | 15 September 2017 | Barbourfields Stadium, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe | Madagascar | 3, 0 | 6-3 | 2017 COSAFA Women's Championship |
| 3 | 4, 0 | |||||
| 4 | 17 September 2017 | Luveve Stadium, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe | Zimbabwe | 1, 2 | 3-3 | |
| 5 | 4 April 2019 | Kamuzu Stadium, Blantyre, Malawi | Mozambique | 2, 0 | 11-1 | 2020 CAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament |
| 6 | 4, 0 | |||||
| 7 | 5, 0 | |||||
| 8 | 7, 0 | |||||
| 9 | 10, 0 | |||||
| 10 | 9 April 2019 | Estádio do Zimpeto, Maputo, Mozambique | Mozambique | 1, 0 | 3-0 | |
| 11 | 7 November 2020 | Wolfson Stadium, Ibhayi, South Africa | Lesotho | 3, 0 | 9-0 | 2020 COSAFA Women's Championship |
| 12 | 9 November 2020 | Zambia | 1, 0 | 1-0 | ||
| 13 | 12 November 2020 | South Africa | 1, 1 | 2-6 | ||
| 14 | 25 September 2023 | Mpria Stadium, Blantyre, Malawi | Seychelles | 12, 0 | 17-0 | Friendly |
| 15 | 13, 0 | |||||
| 16 | 14, 0 | |||||
| 17 | 4 October 2023 | Lucas Moripe Stadium, Pretoria, South Africa | South Africa | 2, 1 | 4-3 | 2023 COSAFA Women's Championship |
| 18 | 3, 1 | |||||
| 19 | 4, 1 | |||||
| 20 | 7 October 2023 | Eswatini | 5, 0 | 8-0 | ||
| 21 | 6, 0 | |||||
| 22 | 7, 0 | |||||
| 23 | 8, 0 | |||||
| 24 | 13 October 2023 | Mozambique | 1, 1 | 2-1 | ||
| 25 | 2, 1 | |||||
| 26 | 28 July 2026 | Al Medina Stadium, Rabat, Morocco | Nigeria | 1, 0 | 3-2 | 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations |
| 27 | 3, 1 | |||||
| 28 | 1 August 2026 | Moulay El Hassan Stadium, Rabat, Morocco | Egypt | 3, 0 | 3-1 | |
| 29 | 9 August 2026 | Al Medina Stadium, Rabat, Morocco | Ghana | 1, 1 | 2-1 | |
| 30 | 12 August 2026 | Rabat Olympic Stadium, Rabat, Morocco | Algeria | 2, 0 | 3-1 |
06Honors and awards
Wuhan Jianghan University
Kansas City Current
Individual
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Temwa Chaŵinga”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- NC Courage vs KC Current (Sep 2024) 007 (cropped).jpg by Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0
- KC Current celebration 2024-01 (cropped).jpg by Taylor Vincent, CC BY 4.0
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