Tam Nsaliwa

Early years

Nsaliwa was born in Lilongwe, Malawi. He moved to Edmonton 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 fourth in the competition. He then played for Edmonton North West United and represented the Alberta Soccer Association in all its subsequent youth select teams before moving to Germany at the age of 16.

Germany

Nsaliwa moved to Germany where he played for the Energie Cottbus youth program for one season, returned to Canada for one year and then back again to Germany to sign with 2. Bundesliga outfit 1. FC Nürnberg. While he only played a minor part, he won the league title to clinch promotion to the Bundesliga. However, unhappy in Nürnberg, he moved on to 1. FC Saarbrücken and carried on to play on the second level for five more years, including one season at Jahn Regensburg. He would go on to relinquish his Canadian citizenship to become a citizen of Germany (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 Super League Greece side Panionios by their new German manager Ewald Lienen and enjoyed his first season of top league soccer. In his first and only season at the club, as co-captain, he would go on to help them place fifth in the league ranking and thus securing a UEFA Cup…

Nsaliwa played at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina, alongside Julian De Guzman and Mike Klukowski among others. He made his senior debut for Canada in an April 2001 LG Cup match against Egypt and earned a total of 13 caps, scoring no goals. He has not yet represented Canada in FIFA World Cup qualification matches but did play a game at the 2001 Confederations Cup and three at the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup. His last full international game for Canada was played against the Brazil at Qwest Field in Seattle on 31 May 2008. Once he renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2007, he became ineligible to play for Canada, and in fact no longer eligible to play international soccer, as he had been cap-tied by Canada.

After he represented the Canada national team at full international level, Nsaliwa renounced his Canadian citizenship to become a citizen of Germany in 2007 to avoid local rules limiting the number of non-EU internationals permitted in a team. On 14 June 2020, he released the song "Sklira", in honor of the new stadium of his former club AEK Athens. The song got over 90,000 views on YouTube within three days. He has also sung "Tsili Kafeneio".

1. FC Nürnberg

2. Bundesliga: 2000–01 Canada

CONCACAF Gold Cup: 3rd place, 2002 Canada U-20

Concacaf runner-up: 2000