Mkandawire wanted by Malawi

This article comes from the Malawi website Nation Online and was first published on May 24th:

A Malawian football prodigy Tamika Mkandawire is making waves in English football where he has inspired Hereford FC earn promotion from the Conference League into the English League Two. To add spice to an already hot mixture, the defender was also voted the club's player of the season Tuesday.

Mkandawire, 22, wrote his name into Hereford folklore on Saturday when he captained the Bulls' return to the Football League after nine years of agony.

Fam president Walter Nyamilandu said Tuesday the association is already planning to persuade the tough-as-teak defender to play for his fatherland.

The right back, who once expressed serious interest to play for the Flames while turning out for English Premiership outfit West Bromwich Albion's reserve side, was the driving force as Hereford beat Halifax Town 3-2 in extra time to wing into League Two.

"I watched the highlights of the game on TV on Sunday and I was impressed with the Tamika's performance. We are now going to intensify our drive to persuade him to play for Malawi. We cannot take chances because if we are to live to our dream of qualifying for the 2008 Africa Nations Cup in Ghana, then these are the type of players we need.

"If we are to have any realistic chances of beating teams like Morocco then we have to convince players like Tamika to come and play for their nation, he is a quality player and I was very impressed," said Nyamilandu.

Mkandawire, who has a Malawian father and British mother, expressed interest to play for the Flames three years ago, but the authorities here never followed up the matter with him. He scored six goals for Hereford in the just ended season.

According to a match report, Welsh international Ryan Green grabbed a wonderful extra time winner to secure the Bulls' promotion. His sweet left-footed effort curling beyond the helpless Town 'keeper Jon Kennedy to spark amazing scenes and send the 10,000 travelling Bulls into raptures with 10 minutes of extra time remaining.

There were fireworks as man-of-the-moment Mkandawire lifted the Bob Lord Trophy.

Currently, Malawi has only five notable players plying their trade in European leagues namely Joseph Kamwendo, Clement Kafwafwa and Heston Munthali who are based in Denmark, Essau Kanyenda who plays in Russia and Dan Chitsulo who is based in Germany.

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