On Tuesday, November 26, after leading the Orlando Pride to secure their first NWSL championship, the BBC awarded striker Barbara Banda Women’s Footballer of the Year. Banda was nominated by an international panel of soccer experts and won the award just days after scoring the winning goal in the national championship game. At the height of her career, Bando should have felt all the pride in winning such a prestigious award, but instead, she’s found herself embroiled in controversy.
Following the BBC’s announcement that Banda had won the award, anti-trans trolls from across the UK took to the internet to condemn her, claiming that she is a man pretending to be a woman to succeed in soccer. If Banda were a transgender woman, these claims would be salacious, but they’re entirely untrue.
The claims stem from a 2022 controversy wherein Banda was barred from competing in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations after a test score showed that she had high testosterone. Her manager insisted not only that Banda never took such a test but also that the Council of African Football does not have a mandatory testosterone cap for women’s soccer.
Regardless, Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, or TERFs, swarmed the internet to hurl accusations of cheating and question Banda’s womanhood. Sharon Davies, a conservative member of parliament, spent hours spreading misinformation about Banda online. JK Rowling also jumped onto the hateful bandwagon. Rowling evoked controversy earlier this year when she similarly trolled Algerian boxer Imane Khelif for pretending to be a woman.
Many women’s sports advocates have repeatedly spoken out against testosterone testing, which disproportionately affects Black and Indigenous athletes. These tests also often impact intersex athletes, many of whom are unaware of their conditions until they receive the results of these exams.
