Barbra Banda (born 20 March 2000) is a Zambian amateur boxer and

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for Chinese club

Shanghai Shengli The Chinese Women's Super League (CWSL) is the top level women's football league in China. It was called the Chinese Women's National Football League from 2011 to 2014. History The league started in 1997 as the Chinese Women's Premier Football L ...

and the Zambia women's national team. She captains the

Zambia women's national football team The Zambia women's national football team, nicknamed the Copper Queens, represents Zambia in women's association football. There is also a Zambia women's national under-17 football team, a Zambia women's national under-20 football team, and Oly ...

Early life

Banda was born in March 2000 in

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was ab ...

, the Zambian capital. She began playing football at the age of seven.

Club career

After spending her two first seasons at Spanish first division club

EDF Logroño EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, ...

, in January 2020, Banda was transferred to Chinese

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

club

. In her debut season, she scored 18 goals in 13 league matches to emerge as the 2020 Chinese Women's Super League top scorer.

International career

Junior

Banda represented the

Zambia women's national under-17 football team Zambia women's national under-17 football team, nicknamed the Junior She-polopolo, represents the country in international under-17 matches. The team has participated in FIFA sanctioned events, including U-17 World Cup qualifiers. Background Zamb ...

in the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

Senior

In Zambia's first group stage match at the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, Banda scored a

hat trick A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The match ended 3–10, the worst ever loss for the Zambia women's national football team and the highest-scoring women's football match in Olympics history. In their second group match, Banda scored another hat trick against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

with the match ending in a 4–4 draw. She became the first female player in Olympics history to score back-to-back hat tricks and the first to score two hat tricks in one tournament. On July 6, 2022, Banda was ruled ineligible to compete for Zambia in the

Women's Africa Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations, also called the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons and abbreviated to WAFCON, is an international women's football competition held every two years and sanctioned by the Confe ...

tournament after a gender verification test found that her natural testosterone levels were above those allowed by the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

, which has stricter gender verification rules than the Olympics. The ruling sparked significant controversy, with

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

describing it as a "clear violation" of her human rights.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Zambia's goal tally first''

Honours

Individual *

Chinese Women's Super League The Chinese Women's Super League (CWSL) is the top level women's football league in China. It was called the Chinese Women's National Football League from 2011 to 2014. History The league started in 1997 as the Chinese Women's Premier Football L ...

Top scorer:

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

References

External links

Profile
at Txapeldunak.com 2000 births Living people Women's association football forwards Zambian women's footballers Sportspeople from Lusaka Zambia women's international footballers EdF Logroño players Primera División (women) players Chinese Women's Super League players Zambian expatriate footballers Zambian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Zambian expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in China Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Zambia {{Zambia-women-footy-bio-stub