Megan Rapinoe has by no means been one to shrink back from controversy, and her newest remarks are not any exception. The previous U.S. girls’s soccer icon took to Instagram to have a good time Barbra Banda’s Girls’s Footballer of the 12 months award from the BBC, regardless of the shadow of a failed intercourse eligibility check in 2022. Banda, who performs for the Orlando Satisfaction within the NWSL, has emerged as one of many league’s prime scorers, making waves each on and off the sphere.
The controversy stems from Banda’s withdrawal from Zambia’s squad for the Girls’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 after failing to fulfill the Confederation of African Soccer’s (CAF) intercourse eligibility necessities. Regardless of this, Banda was allowed to compete on the Paris Olympics and had a breakout 2024 season within the NWSL, scoring 13 objectives in 22 matches and serving to Orlando declare its first NWSL Championship.
In a now-expired Instagram Story, Rapinoe lauded Banda’s achievements, addressing critics along with her trademark candor. “You have thrilled, entertained, and impressed us, and the world, all 12 months lengthy,”Rapinoe wrote, in response to Purpose.com.“That is so deserved as is each little bit of your success. You stand a lot taller than the tiny folks attempting to tear you down.”
Rapinoe, a staunch advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and trans inclusion in sports activities, made it clear that Banda’s accolades must be celebrated fairly than scrutinized. The feedback come at a time when debates about intercourse eligibility and transgender inclusion in girls’s sports activities have intensified worldwide.
Banda’s stellar NWSL season
Banda’s efficiency on the sphere this season speaks for itself. In her first 12 months with the Orlando Satisfaction, the striker was instrumental in main the workforce to an 18-6-2 file and their first-ever NWSL Championship. Banda scored the lone aim within the title match, cementing her standing as one of many league’s elite gamers.
The 2024 season wasn’t nearly workforce success-it was additionally a private triumph for Banda. Ending because the second-leading scorer within the league, she silenced critics along with her athletic prowess, whilst controversy loomed.
Rapinoe’s assist for Banda aligns along with her broader advocacy for inclusion. In a 2023 interview with Time journal, she expressed assist for transgender athletes competing in girls’s sports activities, calling out transphobia within the discourse. “I see trans girls as actual girls,” she mentioned, countering arguments that their participation takes alternatives away from cisgender girls.
Banda’s Legacy
Whereas the controversy round intercourse eligibility continues, Banda’s accomplishments on the sphere can’t be ignored. Her potential to carry out on the highest degree below intense scrutiny has received her admirers throughout the globe, together with one in every of soccer’s most outspoken icons.
As Banda prepares for one more season with the Orlando Satisfaction, her story is more likely to stay a lightning rod for bigger conversations about inclusivity in sports activities. With advocates like Rapinoe in her nook, Banda is poised to proceed making headlines each for her play and her influence on the broader sporting world.
