Malawi senior women’s football team striker Tabitha Chawinga has signed for Serie A Femminile side Inter Milan.
Tabitha has signed a one-year loan contract with Inter Milan from Chinese Women’s Super League side Wuhan Jiangda, several media reports in Malawi have confirmed.
The Italian Women Serie A football giants are set to unveil the 26-year-old Malawian on Tuesday.
Tabitha has left behind in China her younger sister Temwa who is also a leading striker for Wuhan Jiangda.
A few seasons ago, Tabitha left another Chinese Super League side Jiangsu Suning to reunite with Temwa at Jiangda.
Last month, Temwa won her club’s top goal scorer award after netting six goals in six matches for Jiangsu.
Tabitha launched her career at DD Sunshine FC before Temwa followed suit to sign for the Lilongwe-based team.
Tabitha eventually moved to the third-tier Swedish league side, Krokom/Dvarsatts IF, in 2014, becoming the first Malawian woman footballer to sign for a European team.
Tabitha scored 39 goals in 14 games despite missing five games as she had not yet turned 18, which is the minimum age for professional footballers.
The Malawian’s star continued to rise in Sweden where she signed for the then second tier Kvarnsveden, helping them to earn promotion to the main league called Damallsvenskan after scoring 43 goals.
In the first season in the top-flight, injuries meant that Tabitha’s scoring took a dip as she settled for 15 goals, as Kvarnsveden finished in ninth position in the 2016 season.
The following year, Tabitha bagged 25 goals to attract the attention of big clubs from England and France, but she settled for Jiangsu Suning of the Chinese Women’s League, largely for financial gains in the 2017-18 season.
Before signing for Suning, Tabitha had earned accolades, including Damallsvenskan forward of the year 2017, even though her team was relegated.
Before leaving Sweden for China, Tabitha recommended Temwa to the same Swedish team. After a season, Temwa followed her elder sister to China where she signed for Wuhan.
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