The Beeb says Babs is best – no lie detected
Barbra Banda adds yet another accolade to her growing collection.
Firdose Moonda
Barbra Banda is accurate, brisk, creative, daring and an example of women’s sporting excellence – so it’s no surprise she has the footballing world at her feet. On Tuesday, she was named BBC’s Women’s Footballer of the Year, an award voted for by readers of their website in recognition of performances from September 2023 to August 2024.
In that time, Lusaka-born Banda led Zambia to a second successive Olympic Games where she scored her third Olympic hat-trick to become Africa’s highest-ever goal-scorer at the Games.
She earned a $740,000 transfer to Orlando Pride in the American National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), which is the second-highest fee of all-time. She was named the NWSL’s most valuable player. She scored 13 goals in the regular season and four in the playoffs to take the Pride to their first title.
Her sporting ability showed itself from a young age when, as a six-year-old, she played with and against boys because the educational institution she was at did not have a girls’ team.
When her mother tried to stop her playing football, she would sneak out of her home. She told AFP that she would throw her boots out of the window and pretend to be going out, only to collect them and head to training.
Banda’s mother did eventually convince her to give up the game (temporarily), so she became a boxer instead. She was 14 as an amateur and 17 when she turned professional, and was unbeaten with five wins in the latter category before football called her back.
By then, Banda’s father, who supported her sporting ambitions, had passed away and she wanted to honour him by playing the game he loved.
She signed with Lusaka’s Green Buffaloes, the country’s most successful side, and it only took a year before she was scouted for a club in Europe. Banda was the first Zambian to play in Spain, for EDF Logrono, and went on to play in China for Shanghai Shengli.
Just when it seemed that not even the sky was the limit, Banda was stopped in her tracks. She was not able to lead the team at the 2022 African Women’s Cup of Nations because her own country’s football association said she had failed gender eligibility tests.
Neither the continental body, CAF, nor the international football body, Fifa, has ever disqualified Banda from competition and she has since returned to take over the leadership role in Zambia. But allegations like these don’t go away easily.
After her recent BBC accolade, Banda faced a massive social media backlash, mostly from the United Kingdom. Renowned author and transphobe JK Rowling, former footballer Joey Barton and former swimmer Sharron Davies have all been vocal and vitriolic in their criticism of Banda. Outside of the right-wing, she is wrapped in support.
Her club team, Orlando Pride, for whom she scored the only goal in the match that gave them the title two days before she was given the BBC’s recognition, said they were “incredibly proud” of her. Megan Rapinoe, a World Cup winner with the United States, also rallied behind her. “This is so deserved,” she posted on an Instagram story.
And Banda herself has accepted the role of a mentor on the continent. “To the young girl in Africa dreaming big, keep that dream and work hard, I am telling you it does come true,” she posted.
She is living proof of that.
