By Linda Kwanjana
Malawi leader President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera and First Lady Madame Monica Chakwera has extended a warm congratulations to Scorchers captain Tabitha Chawinga who plies her trade in France for earning her first ever women Ballon d’Or nomination.
The Malawi leader said this an outstanding recognition which reflects her exception talent dedication and passion for football.
“We urge all Malawians to rally behind you and show their support, your achievements inspire us all,” Chakwera said.
He has therefore wished Chawinga the very best in the competition as she makes Malawi proud.
The Ballon d’Or is an annual football award presented by French magazine France Football since 1956 to honour the player deemed to have performed the best over the previous season.
Conceived by sports writers Gabriel Hanot and Jacques Ferran, the Ballon d’Or was based exclusively on voting by football journalists up until 2006.
Originally, it was awarded only to players from Europe and was widely known as the European Footballer of the Year award. In 1995, the Ballon d’Or was expanded to include all players of any origin that have been active at European clubs.
The award became a global prize in 2007 with all professional footballers from around the world being eligible; additionally, coaches and captains of national teams were also given the right to vote, before reverting to just journalists in 2016.
Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year, and was known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or.
That partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d’Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award, The Best FIFA Men’s Player.
In 2022, France Football modified the rules for the Ballon d’Or. The timing was changed so that awards were given not for achievements during a calendar year, but for a football season, and it was also determined that only a single journalist from each country in the top 100 of the FIFA Men’s World Ranking would be allowed to vote.
UEFA co-organizes the Ballon d’Or gala since 2024, with France Football retaining the voting system and the Ballon d’Or name.
Lionel Messi won the award a record eight times, and he is also the current holder of the Ballon d’Or, having won its most recent edition in 2023.
Cristiano Ronaldo won it five times and amassed a record eighteen nominations in his career.
Michel Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Basten each won the award three times, while Franz Beckenbauer, Ronaldo, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Kevin Keegan and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge have each won it twice.
