The list of 2025 Ballon d'Or Féminin nominations features some familiar faces. Since 2021, the award for the best women’s soccer player in the world has been dominated by FC Barcelona midfielders Alexia Putellas and Aitana Bonmatí. The duo has two apiece.

Before them, there was Megan Rapinoe in 2019, who most certainly sealed the deal with her extraordinary exploits at the 2019 Women’s World Cup. That year, Rapinoe led the U.S. women’s national team to a record fourth title, scoring six goals and assisting two at the tournament, including braces against Spain in the round of 16 and France in the quarterfinal.

When the women’s Ballon d'Or was launched in 2018, Norwegian star Ada Hegerberg lifted the inaugural award. The undisputed best in the world, the forward was coming off a French league and Champions League-winning season with Lyon, where she scored 53 goals in 33 games (yes, that statistic is real).

However, over the last seven years, the women’s game has undergone enormous evolution. While international soccer and the UEFA Women’s Champions League continue to dominate headlines and voters’ ballots, it’s impossible not to notice the impact that league play in the world’s top divisions is having on the Ballon d'Or.

Enter Temwa Chawinga.

Looking Beyond the Trophies

It is time to broaden the lens of what the world’s best should look like, and that means drilling down into the week-in, week-out play of someone like Chawinga.

Considering the forward plays her international soccer with Malawi, she is already at a significant disadvantage when it comes to exposure to the voting committee—even when compared to many of her African contemporaries like fellow nominees Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride, Zambia) and Chiamaka Nnadozie (Paris FC, Nigeria), who both have featured at the Olympics and the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations over the last year.

Bonmatí’s 2023 Ballon d'Or win came on the back of Barcelona winning the Champions League and Spain winning the World Cup. In 2024, Bonmatí lifted the award again despite Spain crashing out of the Olympics at the quarterfinal stage, but Barcelona were again Champions League winners.

In 2024, four USWNT players (Lindsey Heaps (né Horan), Mal Swanson, Sophia Wilson (né Smith) and Trinity Rodman, were included in the Ballon d’Or top 10 for the first time. This was in large part due to the USWNT winning Olympic gold in Paris.

It’s impossible not to concede that the award is often heavily influenced by those competitions, but Chawinga’s sheer output in a top league should be more highly considered.

The NWSL's Tricky Schedule

Of course, boiling Chawinga’s candidacy down to purely league play isn’t simple because the NWSL’s season is played from March to November. Thus, in Ballon d'Or voting, which evaluates players based on their performances during the European calendar (from one summer to the next), Chawinga is not being judged on one whole season.

Instead, Chawinga’s play within the Ballon d'Or window takes into account the end of the 2024 season and the first two-thirds of 2025.

In terms of this year, it is also unfortunate that Chawinga’s club, the Kansas City Current, will almost certainly win the 2025 NWSL Shield for topping the standings. Still, that trophy will not be included in the voting range for the Ballon d'Or until 2026 due to the European calendar, while her 2024 NWSL Golden Boot award doesn’t carry the same weight under such a window.

For this Ballon d'Or window, Chawinga scored 12 goals in 2024 and then eight goals in the 2025 voting period. That total of 20 goals came across 26 matches: 22 in the NWSL, two playoff games and two Summer Cup games.

While Chawinga’s thrilling clip of scoring a goal every 109 minutes for the Current across those NWSL competitions is impressive, taken as a standalone number, there are perhaps some other strikers, like Barcelona’s Ewa Pajor (a goal every 80 minutes), who have bested her pace.

However, in the Spanish Liga F, where Pajor scored 25 goals, the Polish forward is going up against weaker opposition than Chawinga is in the NWSL. While the top teams in the NWSL may not be able to compete with Arsenal or Barcelona's budgets, the weakest team in the NWSL will be far stronger than some of the clubs at the bottom of the Spanish standings.

And here is precisely what makes Chawinga so special. While Pajor scored hat tricks in a 10–1 win over Granada and a 7–1 victory over Espanyol, Chawinga only had one multi-goal game in this period, which was a brace in the Summer Cup final against Gotham FC.

The fact that Chawinga was able to score not only 20 goals but also score in 19 separate games means she can add even greater value to her team with her ability to change results and secure points, all against tougher opponents than many of the European nominees.

Even though Pajor scored 25 goals in just Liga F last season, she only got on the scoresheet in 14 games, and in all of those games, Barcelona won by a margin of at least three goals. In comparison, in the 19 games in which Chawinga scored, the Current won only four times by a margin of three goals, and on 14 occasions, Chawinga’s goal directly affected the outcome for Kansas City.

It’s hard to put an objective value on a goal. But Chawinga’s consistent contributions that are so evenly spread out across the NWSL make her a more ultimate game-decider than many of the other Ballon d'Or nominees.

More Than a Goalscorer

And finally, while Chawinga’s record-breaking goals are what she is known for, it would be foolish to boil her game down to putting the ball in the back of the net.

Even when Chawinga doesn’t have the ball at her feet, on one of her trademark blistering counter-attacking breakaways, she is often making space for others. Chawinga is a stretch player, someone who demands attention from opponents, which then opens up the field for her teammates.

Chawinga is also a consummate defender, a dedicated marker who ensures opponents can’t play out from the back. She is also accustomed to tracking a runner who breaks free and helping out on the counter-press. Kansas City is on course to break NWSL defensive records this season, and Chawinga is a big part of their solidity. The team has already tied the record for clean sheets (13) and is on pace to concede the fewest goals ever in a season.

Perhaps Chawinga will be a more obvious Ballon d'Or winner next season. At that point, Kansas City will likely have broken more records, will have lifted the 2025 NWSL Shield and are favored to win the championship trophy too.

But for this year, it’s worth not sleeping on her current résumé. She is without a doubt one of the world's best forwards, and this year’s Ballon d’Or results should reflect that.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why KC Current’s Temwa Chawinga Should Be a Ballon d'Or Favorite.

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