Maweta Chilenga: A lanky skillful midfielder with a knack for special goals
Born on 3rd August 2003 Glory Maweta Chilenga is a young female footballer known for flair, skill, and as a scorer of extraordinary amazing goals.
Maweta plays for the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) Lusaka Province Women’s National League side Bauleni United Sports Academy (BUSA) and she is also a Midfielder for the Senior Women’s National Team who is among the graduates from the Under-17 National Team alongside Esther Siamfuko, Esther Banda and Judith Soko.
Maweta started her football journey in 2011 when she joined Sport In Action (SIA) based at Munali Grounds in Lusaka where she spent 5 Years with the team before she moved across the Great East Road to Natural Resources Development College (NRDC) and joined Football Chance Foundation Girls in 2016 until 2018.
In May 2019, she joined Bauleni United Sports Academy (BUSA) Coached by Kaluba Kangwa who is also Zambia U-17 Women’s national team coach and that was the same year that she was selected to be part of the Zambia Under-20 and 17 National Teams that competed at the 2019 inaugural COSAFA Women’s Championships in South Africa and Mauritius respectively.
In South Africa, the Under-20 team were runners-up and settled for Silver losing in the final to Tanzania 2-1 whereas in Mauritius the Under-17 minted Bronze after defeating Botswana 3-0 in the 3rd and 4th play-off with Maweta also registering her name on the scoresheet.
Maweta comes from a sporting family and she was inspired by her dad Mr. Don Chilenga who liked watching football so much and played football when he was young but later on switched his attention to Karate where he is now a Karate Sensei grooming up his son Nathan Chishiba Chilenga and daughter Annie Chishiba Chilenga.
Maweta has been excellent and consistent in the past years and she had an amazing season with BUSA Queens and also played a role with the Zambia Under-20 after graduating from the Under-17 despite the team not making it to the 2022 FIFA World Cup to be hosted by Costa Rica.
Maweta, earned her maiden national team call-up earlier this year after an impressive performance between Zone A and B and also in another friendly match between The rest and All-Stars who are the Copper Queens on 17th April 2022.
12 days later, Maweta made her national team debut coming on in the second half in place of Mary Wilombe in one of the two back-to-back international friendly matches against Botswana Women’s National Team played at Woodlands Stadium which ended 1-nil to Zambia with Ochumba Lubandje Oseke scoring the only goal of the match.
The Kaunda Square-born midfielder went on to be part of the final 23-member squad for Coach Bruce Mwape that is currently in Morocco preparing for the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (WAFCON) Tournament set to Kick-off this weekend and will run from 2-23 July.
Her second national team cap was on June 19 when she replaced Evarine Susan Katongo in the 1-1 draw with the Atlas Lionesses of Morocco.
Maweta made her third appearance for the Copper Queens on Saturday, 28th June 2022 when she started for the Copper Queens who thrashed Moroccan club Phoenix Marrakech 6-nil in a friendly match played at the Stade Grande Stadium in Marrakech.
The lanky midfielder is expected to fight for a spot at the tournament being among the young players in the squad.
Maweta is nicknamed Gaucho named after one of the most skillful and talented Brazilian players ever, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira better known as Ronaldinho Gaucho because of what she does with the ball.
Maweta’s favorite player in the local league is Kabwe Warriors striker, Jimmy Ndhlovu because of his exceptional style of play and his great eye for goals.
The Copper Queens are in Group B at this year’s 12th edition of the WAFCON alongside Cameroon who they will face on 3rd July, 2022 before playing against Tunisia three days later and they will wrap up their group assignment with a tie against debutants Togo on 9th July, 2022.
The semi-finalists from this tournament will automatically earn their tickets at next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand while the two quarter-finalists will have to battle it out in the inter-continental play-offs for a spot at world’s biggest showpiece.