Malawi aim for first regional success in 24 years

The TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations 2026 | COSAFA Qualifiers will be staged in Harare, Zimbabwe from September 11-20 with 12 teams hoping to reach the continental finals that are to be held next year.

It will be fascinating to see which sides emerge to not only take the crown, but also advance with the chance of becoming African champions.

The seventh part of our team profiles looks at Malawi, who have taken the bronze medal in two of the last three tournaments.

MALAWI
Last five tournament finishes:
2019 – Group Stages
2020 – Fourth
2021 – Third
2022 – Third
2024 – Group Stages

Malawi will be looking to make up for a disappointing run at the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations 2025 | COSAFA Qualifiers when they finished bottom of their pool without winning a game.

They opened with 1-1 draws against Mozambique and Angola, before a 3-2 defeat to Lesotho ended their semifinal hopes.

They had finished third at the previous two tournaments and will be desperate to at least go one better and make the final this time round to qualify for continental competition having been winner of the regional event in 2001.

Malawi’s star of that 2001 competition was Robert Ng’ambi, who would go on to have a superb career in South Africa and with the Malawi senior national team.

They breezed through their group on that occasion with wins over Botswana (2-0) and Mauritius (4-0), before defeating Zambia 5-4 in the semifinals.

That set up a decider with South Africa and Malawi prevailed with a comfortable 3-0 scoreline to lift the trophy.

They skipped the 2002 tournament and reached the semifinals again in 2007 and 2016, and finished fourth in a four-team tournament in 2020 that was hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They reached the semifinals in 2021 but lost to Zambia before a 4-0 victory over Eswatini in the bronze medal match.

They were back in the last-4 in 2022, but last heavily to South Africa and then defeated Botswana 5-2 to take the bronze.

Malawi have appeared once before at the continental finals when they finished fourth in 2009. They lost to The Gambia in the semifinals and then Burkina Faso in the bronze medal match.

That did qualify them for the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, but they lost all three games to the United Arab Emirates, United States and Spain.