Copper Queens Win First Cosafa Cup, Barbara Equals Record

The Zambia women’s national team have won the COSAFA women’s Championship for the first time in the history of the competition after beating record title holders South Africa 1-0.

It took an extra-time goal in the 108th minute by Barbara Banda who headed in the winner from a well whipped in cross by Margret Belemu to win the Copper Queens their first ever COSAFA Women’s Championship title.

Banda scored her 10th goal of the tournament to finish as top scorer and also win the player of the tournament award.

Barbara Banda shows off her player of the tournament and top scorer awards -( Picture via COSAFA media)

she scored in each of Zambia’s games at this year’s edition, five months after being away from competitive football following her failure to feature for the copper queens at the 2022 Womens Africa cup in Morocco due to eligibility rules by the Confederation of African football which caused a lot of controversies.

Banda has also equalled striker Racheal Nachula’s record of the most goals scored in a single COSAFA women’s tournament by a Zambian.

Nachula scored 10 goals in the 2019 edition to carry home the golden boot and player of the tournament awards just like Banda.

Copper Queens crowned Champions – (Picture via COSAFA media)

The Copper Queens will now shift their attention on preparing for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup set to be held in Newzlead and Australia.

Calvin Kaumba Chikenge September 11, 2022

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Calvin Kaumba Chikenge is an award-winning Zambian multimedia sports journalist well known for his exclusive stories and feature writing. He was voted 2023/24 MTN/FAZ Super League journalist of the year. In addition to reporting on sports for Spring TV, he interned for the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper. He is the current Ballon d'Or juror and has contributed to numerous international publications, including the Guardian in the UK, and is the editor of BolaNews.