Barbra Banda

EDF Logroño, 2018–2020

Banda signed with Spanish first division club EDF Logroño in October 2018 becoming the first woman Zambian footballer to play in Europe. She scored 16 goals in 28 matches with the club.

Shanghai Shengli, 2020–2023

In January 2020, Banda signed with Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shengli. She scored in the 23rd minute of her debut for the club on 23 August. Banda went on to score 18 goals in 13 league matches to emerge as the 2020 Chinese Women's Super League Golden Boot winner for most goals scored in the league.

Orlando Pride, 2024–present

On 7 March 2024, the National Women's Soccer League club Orlando Pride announced that they had signed Banda to a four-year contract through the 2027 season. Transferred for a $740,000 fee, the transaction was the second-highest in women's football history at the time. Banda made her club debut off the bench in a 1–0 win over the San Diego Wave on 19 April. She made an impressive first start on 26 April, in which she assisted, scored, and drew a penalty in a 3–2 away win over the Washington Spirit. Banda scored eight goals in her first seven games, tying Sophia Smith for the Golden Boot lead. She was named NWSL Player of the Month for May with seven goals in five games, including three braces. On 7 July she scored her 12th goal of the season to open a battle between the league's last two undefeated teams, the Orlando Pride and the Kansas City Current, which ended as a 2–1 win for the…

Junior

Banda represented the Zambia women's national under-17 football team in the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. She turned 14 during the tournament.

Senior

On 6 March 2016, Banda made her senior team debut in a 2016 Women's Africa Cup of Nations qualification match against Namibia. Banda captained the Zambian squad at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the first time Zambia competed at the international tournament. During the team's first group stage match, Banda scored a hat trick against the Netherlands. 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 with the match ending in a 4–4 draw. She became the first woman footballer in Olympic history to score back-to-back hat tricks and the first to score two hat tricks in one tournament. She is Africa's all-time top scorer in Olympic history. On 6 July 2022, Banda and three teammates, including striker Racheal Kundananji, were ruled ineligible to compete for Zambia in the World Cup-qualifying tournament, Africa Cup of Nations, after a gender verification test found that their natural testosterone levels were above those allowed by the Confederation of African Football, which has stricter gender verification rules than the Olympics. The ruling sparked significant controversy, with Human Rights Watch describing it as a "clear…

After being inspired by Zambian professional boxer Catherine Phiri, Banda started boxing around age 14 first as an amateur and then after never losing a bout and other amateurs refusing to fight her, she turned professional. Banda competed in five professional bouts and won all five before opting to focus on football. In 2021, Banda launched the Barbra Banda Foundation which aims to support programs that promote empowerment for women and girls on issues of economic inequality, gender-based violence, lack of access to equal opportunities, teenage pregnancies, and early marriages using the power of sport. The foundation co-hosts an annual football tournament. On the foundation, Banda said, "Like many, I did not come from a place of abundance and hence I understand what it means to need help and no one willing to help you. I have also experienced how much easier life gets when you have people ready to help you on your path to success." Banda joined Common Goal in 2019 pledging at least 1% of her salary to a collective fund that supports football charities around the world.

Banda was born in Lusaka, the Zambian capital. She began playing football around the age of seven playing on the streets. Banda was inspired by her father who played football and would encourage her to practise. She played with boys as the academy she attended did not have a girls team. After her parents became concerned that her focus on the sport was interfering with schooling, she would sometimes sneak out and "throw them (boots) out the window, then go out the door, and they'd think maybe she's just going outside, and then I'd go round to get them."