Salimata Simporé (born 29 January 1987) is a Burkinabé

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 lea ...

who plays as a forward for

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League (, ''Vyšejšaja Liha'' or ''Vysheyshaya Liga''; ; "Top League"), also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the B ...

club

FC Minsk FC Minsk () is a Belarusian professional football club based in Minsk. They play in the Belarusian Premier League, the highest tier of Belarusian football. Their colours are red and navy blue. History The club was established in 2006 and was b ...

and the Burkina Faso women's national team.

Club career

Simporé played in Burkina Faso for Princesses in 2005 and 2015, for USFA in 2016 and for Etincelles in 2019. In October 2006, Simporé was registered as a player for Equatorial Guinean club Las Vegas.

International career

Between 2006 and 2010, Burkinabé-born Simporé used to play for Equatorial Guinea as a naturalized player, having integrated the Equatorial Guinea's squads that won the

2008 African Women's Championship The 2008 African Women's Championship was the 8th edition of the biennial African women's association football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football held between 15 and 29 November 2008 in and won by Equatorial Guinea. ...

and reached the second place in the

2010 African Women's Championship The 2010 African Women's Championship was held in South Africa from 31 October to 14 November 2010. Seven national teams joined the host nation following a series of knock-out home and away ties. This tournament was also a qualification tournam ...

, which allowed Equatorial Guinea to qualify for the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for List of women's national association football teams, women's national association football, football teams. It was held from 26 June to ...

. Around April 2011, Simporé was removed from national team by the Italian-born Brazilian coach Marcelo Frigerio, who had recently assumed, just a few months before participating in the World Cup, that Simporé was male. Since then, Simporé was never called-up by Equatorial Guinea. Simporé was a member of the Burkina Faso women's national football team in 2007 (as their captain), scoring 8 goals, and 2018.

International goals

''Scores and results list Equatorial Guinea's goal tally first'' ''Scores and results list Burkina Faso's goal tally first''

Gender controversy

Beyond the mechanism by which Simporé was naturalized by Equatorial Guinea, the main controversy arose regarding whether Simporé was actually a man. In 2015, Frigerio, now a former national team coach for Equatorial Guinea, told the Brazilian press Simporé is in fact a man.

Honors and awards

National team

;Equatorial Guinea *

Africa Women Cup of Nations The Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies Women's Africa Cup of Nations and formerly the African Women's Championship, is a biennial international women's football tournament organized by ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References

External links

Salimata Simporé
at CAF official website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simpore, Salimata 1987 births Living people Sex verification in sports Burkinabe women's footballers Footballers from Ouagadougou Women's association football forwards Dual internationalists (women's football) Burkina Faso women's international footballers Equatorial Guinea women's international footballers Burkinabe expatriate women's footballers Burkinabe expatriates in Belarus Expatriate women's footballers in Belarus Burkinabe expatriates in Equatorial Guinea Expatriate women's footballers in Equatorial Guinea 20th-century Burkinabe people 21st-century Burkinabe sportswomen