Barbra Banda has been voted as BBC Girls’s Footballer of the Yr.
The Zambian and Orlando Delight striker acquired essentially the most votes from a panel of specialists together with coaches, gamers, directors and journalists.
Beating off stiff competitors from this 12 months’s ladies’s Ballon d’or winner Aitana Bonmati and USA and Portland Thorns ahead Sophia Smith.
The 24-year-old’s victory has been criticised by some ladies’s rights teams and members of the soccer neighborhood as a result of she was beforehand withdrawn from the Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 by crew bosses over allegedly ‘excessive testosterone’ ranges.
Right here is every thing it’s good to know in regards to the Zambian striker.
Barbra Banda has been named as BBC Girls’s Footballer of the Yr
The Zambian and Orlando Delight striker gained the award Beating off stiff competitors from ladies’s Ballon d’or winner Aitana Bonmati and USA ahead Sophia Smith
Who’s Barbra Banda?
Banda was born within the Zambian capital of Lusaka on March 20, 2000. She started taking part in soccer across the age of seven.
In 2018, she turned the primary Zambian lady to play her soccer in Europe when she joined Spanish facet Logrono.
She spent two years with the Spanish outfit scoring 16 objectives in 28 video games earlier than she joined Chinese language Tremendous League facet Shanghai Shengli.
In her debut season with the Chinese language membership, Banda took house the golden boot award.
After three years, 13 appearances and 18 objectives in China, Banda moved to US facet Orland Delight this season for a staggering charge of $740,000 (£565,000).
The 24-year-old made an impression immediately scoring 13 objectives within the common season and 4 extra within the play-offs, which was a NWSL post-season file.
She additionally helped Orland Delight raise their first NWSL title, after scoring the winner vs Washington Spirit within the last.
In 2018, she turned the primary Zambian lady to play her soccer in Europe when she joined Spanish facet Logrono
She helped Orland Delight raise their first NWSL title, after scoring the winner vs Washington Spirit within the last
Achievements
- BBC 2024 Girls’s Footballer of the Yr
- 2024 Ballon d’or nominee
- Named within the 2024 NWSL’s Finest XI
- Africa’s all-time prime scorer – male or feminine – in Olympic soccer historical past (10 objectives)
Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 exclusion
In 2022, regardless of being initially named to function within the competitors, Banda was not noted of Zambia’s Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations squad.
It was later reported that Banda was withdrawn from the squad on ‘gender eligibility grounds’ after crew bosses turned conscious her ‘testosterone ranges’ had been larger than these permitted by the Confederation of African Soccer.
Talking on the time, the President of the Zambian FA mentioned that she underwent a gender verification take a look at, which didn’t meet the factors for the competitors.
An investigation accomplished by the Telegraph final 12 months discovered that there was no suggestion that Banda’s testosterone ranges had been ‘something however naturally occurring’.
Her agent agent Anton Maksimov mentioned in an announcement on the time of the 2022 Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations that Banda’s exclusion was not as a result of she failed a gender take a look at, as a substitute she was eliminated based mostly on an ‘analysis of her bodily circumstances’.
‘As her official consultant, I can state that Barbra has not been banned or suspended from taking part within the present WAFCON by CAF, FAZ, FIFA, or every other governing physique.
‘She has not undergone and consequently has not failed any “gender verification” or “gender eligibility checks” administered previous to the event. Barbra can be completely wholesome and match.
‘The choice to not at present function Barbra on the event is FAZ’s inner resolution based mostly on their very own analysis of her bodily circumstances earlier than coming to Morocco.
‘I reiterate that nothing, no current laws that we’re conscious of, prevents Barbra’s participation within the WAFCON 2022. Barbra has not failed any medical checks on this regard both.’
In 2022, regardless of being initially named to function within the competitors, Banda was not noted of Zambia’s Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations squad
It was reported that Banda was withdrawn from the squad on gender eligibility grounds after crew bosses turned conscious her testosterone ranges had been larger than these permitted by the Confederation of African Soccer
How a lot does Barbra Banda earn?
In March 2024, Banda turned the second costliest ladies’s soccer participant of all time, simply behind Racheal Kundananji’s $860,000 (£685,000) from Madrid CFF to Bay FC.
The 24-year-old Zambian striker signed for US facet Orlando Delight for $740,000 (£565,000).
With a contract value about $500,000 (£382,000) per 12 months, Banda is among the highest paid gamers within the NWSL.
When Orlando Delight introduced her signing, the membership’s sporting director Haley Carter described Banda as ‘a natural-born objective scorer and probably the most bodily imposing forwards on the planet’.
