Tam Nsaliwa
Encyclopedia
Tamandani Wazayo Phillip "Tam" Nsaliwa (born on 28 January 1982 in Lilongwe, Malawi) is a professional soccer player currently playing as a Midfielder
Midfielder
A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...

.

Early years

Tam was born in Lilongwe, Malawi and moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia at age six. After moving again to Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...

 some years after he played for local youth side Edmonton Southwest United. Apparently this was the first boys team in club history to advance to the Under-15 National Championships, finishing 4th in the competition. He later on went on to play for Edmonton North West United and represented the Alberta Soccer Association
Alberta Soccer Association
The Alberta Soccer Association is the governing body for soccer in the Canadian province of Alberta. The association was formed in 1911 as the Alberta Football Association. It is known to most members and in most situations simply as "ASA."...

 in all its subsequent youth select teams before moving to Germany at the age of 16.

Germany

He moved to Germany where he played for the Energie Cottbus
Energie Cottbus
FC Energie Cottbus is a German association football club based in Cottbus, Lusatia . It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was, at the time, East Germany...

 youth program for one season, returned to Canada for one year and then back again to Germany to sign with Second Division
2. Fußball-Bundesliga
- Changes in division set-up :* Number of clubs: currently 18. From 1974 to 1981 there were two conferences, each of 20 teams. In 1981–91 it had 20...

 outfit Nürnberg. While he only played a minor part, he won the league title to clinch promotion to the First Bundesliga
Fußball-Bundesliga
The Fußball-Bundesliga is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of Germany's football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Bundesliga...

. However, unhappy in Nurnberg, he moved on to Saarbrücken
1. FC Saarbrücken
1. FC Saarbrücken is a German association football club based in the city of Saarbrücken, Saarland. The club began its existence as the football department of Turnverein Malstatt formed in 1903...

 and carried on to play on the second level for 5 more years, including one season at Jahn Regensburg
Jahn Regensburg
SSV Jahn Regensburg is a German association football club based in Regensburg, Bavaria. The team was part of a larger sports club founded in 1889 as Turnerbund Jahn Regensburg which took its name from Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, whose ideas of gymnastics greatly influenced German sport in the 19th...

. He would go on to relinquish his Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 citizenship to become a citizen of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (where he spent seven years) in 2007 to avoid local rules limiting the number of non-EU internationals permitted in a team.

Greece

In 2006, he was lured to Greek Super League
Super League Greece
The Superleague Greece is the highest professional football league in Greece. It was formed on July 16, 2006 and replaced Alpha Ethniki at the top of the Greek football league system. The league consists of 16 teams and runs from August to May, with teams playing 30 games each...

 side Panionios by their new German manager Ewald Lienen
Ewald Lienen
Ewald Lienen is a German former footballer and manager.-Playing career:Lienen began his professional career at Arminia Bielefeld of the 2.Bundesliga North in 1974. After three seasons, he moved up to the top flight with Borussia Mönchengladbach...

 and enjoyed his first season of top league football. In his first and only season at the club, as co captain, he would go on to help them place 5th in the league ranking and thus securing a UEFA Cup position for the following year for only the second time in the clubs history. He did this with his second goal of the season on the final day of the season against local giants AEK Athens. Prior to the match it had been publicly speculated that he had already signed for AEK in that mid season, although he was also being publicly courted but the two other Greek Football giants Olympiacos F.C. and Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos FC
Panathinaikos Football Club is a Greek professional football club based in Athens. Founded in 1908, they play in the Super League Greece and are one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Greek football history. They have won 20 Greek Championships and 17 Greek Cups.Panathinaikos is the most...

. Some days after that game he went on to announce that he would join AEK on a 3 year contract.

AEK Athens F.C.

In his first season at AEK FC, Tam would quickly win the affections of AEK supporters with his performance against Sevilla Fútbol Club in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League Qualifying stage playing alongside Champions League Runner up Akis Zikos
Akis Zikos
Andreas Vassilis "Akis" Zikos is a retired Greek international football player who played as a defensive midfielder...

 Akis Zikos
Akis Zikos
Andreas Vassilis "Akis" Zikos is a retired Greek international football player who played as a defensive midfielder...

 and World Cup Champion Rivaldo
Rivaldo
Rivaldo Vítor Borba Ferreira , commonly known simply as Rivaldo , is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for São Paulo, on loan from Mogi Mirim, as an attacking midfielder and sometimes as a supporting striker.He most notably played five years with Spanish club FC Barcelona, with whom he...

.
Although AEK did not advance he was singled out as a shining player for the team in the series and expectations had been placed on him based on it.

That season the club would be crowned "The Unofficial Champions of Greece" after a disputed Championship won by Olympiacos FC.
The championship was handed to Olympiacos after the Greek Football Federation found an Austrian player from Iraklis had played a game against the club illegally and thus awarded Olympiacos the 3 points that would subsequently take them 2 point above AEK FC and elude the club of yet another championship after 13 years.

In his first UEFA cup season with AEK, Tam went on to score the lone goal against FK Mladá Boleslav
FK Mladá Boleslav
FK Mladá Boleslav is a Czech football club from Mladá Boleslav.- Recent times :The team was promoted to Gambrinus liga for the first time in its history in 2004 and in their first top-flight season fought against relegation, eventually finishing in 14th place...

 that subsequently saw AEK advance to the knock out stage. Despite losing the following game to Villarreal Club de Fútbol at home, the goal proved to be the difference in AEK moving on to the next round.
He would also go on to receive MVP of the last game of the season against Panathinaikos FC with a long range goal that tied the game at 1-1.

The following season, after a personally very bad start, again Tam would play a major role in AEK's 3rd place finish to the season as well as be a part of the "Game of the Century" in the Greek cup final against Olympiacos FC. The match would go on to end 3-3, last more than 3 hours with 2 extra times and 19 penalty shots, with Tam scoring both of his, but AEK Fc losing the game.

Tam's third season at AEK started and ended questionable. Struggling with playing time and injuries, it was discovered at mid season that he had a falling out with the head coach of the club Dusan Bajevic
Dušan Bajevic
Dušan Bajević is a Bosnian football manager and former Yugoslav international.-Playing career:...

 and he would go on to state in Greek news "I played a major role in the last 4 games before the Christmas break and then when I returned I never trained with the team again."

No insight has been given as to exactly what happened, but after an un successful transfer period in which he refused to join several other Greek teams, Romanian club Rapid Bucharest and was speculated to have interest from a Premier League club, Nsaliwa signed a loan contract with the Norwegian top flight club Lillestrøm SK, a month after the end of the 2009/2010 winter transfer period, which was to last until June 2010, .

Before leaving, there was speculation in Greek news that the president of AEK tried to stop the loan transfer and have Tam stay, but it was later made clear that there was no relationship left between the player and coach.

AEK would go on to write on its website "Aek Fc would like to thank Tamandani Nsaliwa for his services to the club and wish him the best of luck in his future career."

Spain

After a rather mediocre loan spell in Norway, Tam was said to have signed for Spanish football side Real Betis
Real Betis
Real Betis Balompié S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 12 September 1907, it currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at Estadio Benito Villamarín....

 Balompié.

with the public backing of current Vice President of RCD Mallorca
RCD Mallorca
Real Club Deportivo Mallorca is a Spanish football team based on Palma, Majorca, in the Balearic Islands. Founded on 5 March 1916, the team currently plays in the Spanish first division, holding home games at Son Moix....

, former Betis coach and a former coach of Nsaliwa at AEK, Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.
Although it is not well known what happened in the time Nsaliwa was in Seville to finish the agreement, according to the official website of Real Betis
Real Betis
Real Betis Balompié S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 12 September 1907, it currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at Estadio Benito Villamarín....

, it was stated that "Nsaliwa will not play in the club because there was no economic agreement between both parties."
After this, the player decided to sue the club for the amount he claimed was the agreed contractual sum of 900,000 Euros.
This is the translation of the official notice that the club put on its website:

"Real Betis Balompié has ruled out signing Tamandani Nsaliwa after both parties have reached an agreement on economic quantities. After several days that has been in talks with the player and his representatives, club Betis midfielder ruled out the incorporation of after failing to reach a point in common. Real Betis continue to work tirelessly to continue making the template ahead of the season that begins in less than two weeks."

After 6 months of being without a club, on January 2011 he went on to sign for SD Ponferradina
SD Ponferradina
Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ponferrada, in the El Bierzo region, León, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...

 in the Spanish Second Division.

International career

Nsaliwa played at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship
2001 FIFA World Youth Championship
The 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Argentina between June 17 and July 8, 2001. The 2001 championship was the 13th contested. The tournament took part in six cities, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Mendoza, Rosario, Salta, and Mar del Plata...

 in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, alongside Julian De Guzman
Julian de Guzmán
Julian de Guzman is a Canadian soccer player who currently plays for Toronto FC in Major League Soccer.Previously, he played for Deportivo de La Coruña, and was the first Canadian to play in the Spanish La Liga...

 and Mike Klukowski among others.

He made his senior debut for Canada
Canada men's national soccer team
The Canada men's national soccer team represents Canada in international soccer competitions at the senior men's level. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association and compete in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football .Their most significant...

 in an April 2001 LG Cup match against Egypt and has, by December 2009, earned a total of 13 caps, scoring no goals. He has not yet represented Canada in FIFA World Cup qualification
FIFA World Cup qualification
The FIFA World Cup qualification is the process that a national association football team goes through to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals. The FIFA World Cup is a global event, so qualification is required to reduce the large field of participants from about 200 to 32.Qualifying tournaments...

 matches but did play a game at the 2001 Confederations Cup and 3 at the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup
2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup
The 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the sixth edition of the Gold Cup, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean ....

.

His last full international game for Canada was played against the Brazil national football team
Brazil national football team
The Brazil national football team represents Brazil in international men's football and is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation , the governing body for football in Brazil. They are a member of the International Federation of Association Football since 1923 and also a member of the...

 at Qwest Field in Seattle on May 31, 2008.

Personal life

Although he represented the Canada men's national soccer team
Canada men's national soccer team
The Canada men's national soccer team represents Canada in international soccer competitions at the senior men's level. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association and compete in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football .Their most significant...

 at full international level, he renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a citizen of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in 2007 to avoid local rules limiting the number of non-EU internationals permitted in a team.

Honours

Canada men's national under-20 soccer team
  • Concacaf
    CONCACAF
    The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football is the continental governing body for association football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean...

     Co-Champion 2000
  • FIFA U-20 World Cup
    FIFA U-20 World Cup
    The FIFA U-20 World Cup, until 2005 known as the FIFA World Youth Championship, is the world championship of football for male players under the age of 20 and is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association...

     2001


FC Nurnberg
  • 2. Bundesliga League Champion 2000-2001


Panionios
Panionios
Panionios GSS , the Pan-Ionian Gymnastic Association of Smyrna, is a Greek multi sport club founded in 1890. Originally based in Smyrna/Izmir, the club was uprooted in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey following the Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922...

  • Superleague Greece 5th place. UEFA cup qualification 2006-07


AEK Athens F.C.:
  • Superleague Greece Runners up 2007-08
  • Greek Cup: Runners up 2008–09

External links

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