Temwa Chawinga becomes the first Malawian in the Ballon d'Or top 10

Tenth. That is where Temwa Chawinga finished in the 2026 women’s Ballon d’Or, presented on Monday at the London Palladium. Ahead of her were nine players from Barcelona, Manchester City, Lyon, Bayern and Arsenal. Behind her, names such as Yui Hasegawa, Klara Bühl and Wendie Renard.

It is a first for Malawi: no player from the country had ever made the top ten of the vote, as the Nyasa Times and other Malawian outlets reported. ESPN published the full ranking after the ceremony, which Alexia Putellas won.

From Rumphi to the NWSL

Chawinga was born in 1998 in Rumphi district, in northern Malawi. She played in Sweden and China before joining the Kansas City Current of the US National Women’s Soccer League in January 2024. Things moved fast from there:

• In 2024 she scored 20 regular-season goals, a league record, and was voted MVP.
• In 2025 she scored 15, kept the Golden Boot and became the first player to win MVP in consecutive seasons.

An injury in October 2025 ruled her out of the playoffs and the start of 2026. She returned in April and on 10 May scored a hat-trick against the Chicago Stars, the match in the photo above. In June she signed a new deal with the club until 2029.

A country that sees itself in her

Malawi’s First Lady, Gertrude Mutharika, congratulated the player and called it “a national milestone we should all celebrate”. She said Chawinga had been breaking records with club and country for four years in a row. In 2023 she led Malawi to its first COSAFA title, the southern African championship, with nine goals.

Her older sister, Tabitha Chawinga, is also an international and plays for OL Lyonnes in France.

Mutharika hopes Temwa’s ranking will spur on the Scorchers, the women’s national team, at their first World Cup, in Brazil next year.