Malawi women's head coach Stuart Mbolembole have said Tabitha Chawinga's exclusion from the finalists for the 2017 African Women Player of the Year award was due to their unpopularity in the women's game.

 Chawinga had a stellar outing last season in the Damallsvenskan in Sweden with Kvarnsveden, finishing as the league top scorer with 26 goals.

Sadly, the 21 years old was overlooked for the top prize, with CAF announcing Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala, Cheristina Kgatlana of South Africa and Gabrielle Aboudi Onguene from Cameroon as the nominees.

Mbolembole, however, attributed her omission on the country's inability to feature at international events such as the FIFA Women's World Cup and summer Olympic Games.

"I think she has been robbed of the Caf nomination simply because of the fact that Malawi as not consistent on the international stage and not a regular participant in the continental games," he told Goal.com

 "She is one of the best and one of the talented players I have come across in Malawi. The latest exclusion of her is because Malawi does not constantly feature in many competitions where people could see how good she is capable of doing in football."

Chawinga's exploit in the Swedish women's topflight division saw her winning the Best Forward accolade during the league awards ceremony.

She also earned a move to the lucrative Chinese Women Super League (CWSL), signing for Jiangsu Suning for an undisclosed fee.


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