Ernest Mtawali, also known as Ernest Chirwali, (born October 10, 1966) is a retired

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Mtawali initially played for Hardware Stars in his home country. In

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

he played for Welkom Real Hearts,

Bloemfontein Celtic Bloemfontein Celtic Football Club (simply known as Celtic) is a South African amateur football club based in Bloemfontein that competes in the ABC Motsepe League, the third tier of the South African football league system. Bloemfontein Celtic has ...

, Sundowns FC, Orlando Pirates,

Hellenic FC Hellenic FC is a South African association football club based in Cape Town. They were nicknamed ''The Greek Gods''. Established in 1958 by Greek South Africans, Hellenic campaigned in the lower amateur leagues of Cape Town. But by the 1970s the ...

and Ajax Cape Town. He also had stints with Newell's Old Boys in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Toulouse FC Toulouse Football Club is French professional football club based in Toulouse. The club was founded in 1970 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the premier division of French football. Toulouse plays its home matches at the Stadium de Toulouse lo ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, Al-Wehda in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and also represented his country's national team. He is also reported to have played in the Italian third division, under a false name in order to evade a FIFA ban on players who had played in Apartheid-era South Africa. He was appointed as caretaker manager of the Malawi national team in June 2015.

References

1966 births Living people Malawian men's footballers Malawian expatriate men's footballers Malawi men's international footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Men's association football midfielders Malawian expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Al Wehda FC players Hellenic F.C. players Cape Town Spurs F.C. players Toulouse FC players Ligue 1 players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Bloemfontein Celtic F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Newell's Old Boys footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina {{Malawi-footy-bio-stub