In Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji, the Copper Queens have the two most expensive players in the world in their arsenal at Paris 2024
When Zambia debuted at the Olympic women’s football tournament in 2021, it did so as an unknown quantity. After all, only four players in its squad played for clubs abroad – in Israel, Kazakhstan, China and Spain’s second tier. But after giving a good account of themselves in Japan, the Copper Queens return to this stage in France with the potential to do even more, not least because their frontline now boasts the two most expensive women’s footballers of all time.
Racheal Kundananji shot to the top of that list in January, when NWSL expansion side Bay FC signed her for a world-record fee of $860,000 (£685k). Barbra Banda, her Zambia team-mate, snuck up just behind her in those rankings in March, the Orlando Pride paying $680k (£582k) to bring her to the U.S.
Before the last Olympics, Zambia had never played a major international tournament and in three appearances at the Africa Cup of Nations, it had won just one game. But the sensational transfer fees and interest from big clubs that some of the Copper Queens are attracting shows the rise of women’s football in a nation that was hardly on the map in the sport a few years ago.
Pooled with Australia, Germany and the United States for the group stage at Paris 2024, the odds will be stacked against Zambia once again, as they were on debut at the Olympics and at last year’s World Cup, where Spain and Japan progressed at its expense. But against three teams that will have medal ambitions, the African nation has enough quality to at least pose problems, if not cause a big upset.
Getty ImagesPlenty of obstacles
It's not been easy for Zambia to get to this point. Most, if not all, of the players in this team spent their childhoods fighting against the stigma of girls playing football, one that many of them believe is at least starting to change as their success sets a positive example.
The opportunities for players in Africa are nothing like what they are for those in Europe, for example, either. Domestic leagues are rarely scouted and so it is often from international competitions, which are not easy to qualify for, that these players put themselves on the radar of overseas clubs.
Regular champions of lower-quality European leagues, who are thus participants in at least the UEFA Women’s Champions League’s qualifying rounds, have tapped into the under-used market in Africa over the years, able to guarantee that big competition experience and exposure to exciting prospects. But even that opportunity can be tough, as Kundananji’s own experiences show.
AdvertisementGetty'Learn to cope'
“Being from Africa, you see an opportunity,” Kundananji told earlier this year, discussing the move to Kazakhstan, to play for BIIK Kazygurt, that she made in 2019. “It might not make sense when you begin the journey, but you have to start from somewhere. I saw that they were in the Champions League, which was my dream to play in, so when I saw the opportunity, I had to grab it.”
There, the forward was able to catch the eye by making 11 appearances in the UWCL and scoring four goals – including one against Bayern Munich. However, it was not an easy experience. “I lived in Shymkent, a small city, for three years. I can say that it was not that friendly for people like us,” she explained. “Black people are not common there. When they see black people on the street it’s very different there to how it is in other European cities and countries.
“A soldier is always a soldier. A soldier will always survive in any situation. When you know what you want, you have to learn to cope with things. I wanted to go to a bigger league so I just had to endure everything and use this small opportunity. To get good things, you have to face a lot of challenges.”
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Fortunately, Kundananji’s perseverance paid off. She secured a transfer to Eibar in 2021, choosing to move to Spain’s more competitive league despite BIIK Kazygurt offering her five-times her current salary to stay, and then to a Madrid CFF side battling towards the top end of the division. It was in the capital that she scored 33 goals in 43 games to interest Bay FC, who broke the world-record to bring her to the States.
“We are all proud of her, her team-mates on the national team, and we’re pushing everyone to push harder for those kinds of deals and records,” Banda said of Kundananji earlier this year, in an interview with . “At the end of the day, we are putting Africa on the map.”
Those comments came after her own new chapter in the U.S. was confirmed, following four years in the mysterious but lucrative Chinese Women’s Super League. It was there, for Shanghai Shengli, that Banda was playing when the last Olympics came around, having initially come to the fore by scoring 15 goals in 28 games for Logrono in Spain.
When the Zambia captain bagged back-to-back hat-tricks at Tokyo 2020, becoming the first woman to do so, fans across the globe were desperate to see her return to one of the sport’s top leagues. Despite playing in a division that was near-impossible to watch outside of China, Banda’s profile was huge and that tournament was a big reason why.
Taking the U.S. by storm
Nothing showed that better than the reception she received when she landed in Orlando. A crowd of Zambians and fans of the Orlando Pride, their respective green and purple colours creating a vibrant scene for the NWSL’s newest addition, greeted Banda when she touched down in Florida, as did cheers, singing and signs bearing her name. It was a unique sight, but Banda has quickly shown that she was worth such fanfare.
Having torn up the league in China, winning the Golden Boot in 2020, she has been able to translate that form to the U.S. with incredible ease, signing off for this summer’s Olympics having scored 12 goals in as many games – tied with Temwa Chawinga, the Kansas City Current’s Malawi star, at the top of the scoring charts. Those goals have helped the Orlando Pride, a perennial under-achiever in the NWSL, remain unbeaten through the first 16 games of the season.
