ORLANDO, Fla.  — The Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League have acquired Zambian forward Barbra Banda for a club-record transfer fee.

What You Need To Know

  • Zambia's Barbra Banda will join the Pride after a club-record $740,000 transfer fee

  • The transfer fee is the second-highest in women's soccer

  • The forward signed a four-year deal with Orlando

  • Allocation money was used to complete the deal

Banda signed a four-year deal with the Pride, who paid $740,000 to Chinese Women’s Super League club Shanghai Shengli FC, the team said. Orlando used allocation money in the signing.

It is the second-highest transfer fee in women's soccer, after NWSL expansion team Bay FC paid Real Madrid $788,000 for Zambia forward Racheal Kundananji last month.

Banda will join the team pending the receipt of her P-1 Visa and International Transfer Certificate. 

"Barbra Banda brings a new level of technical skill, physicality and pace to our attack, and she is an exciting and entertaining addition to our roster,” Orlando Pride owner and Chairman Mark Wilf said in a statement. “...Our fans have much to look forward to as we prepare to kick off the regular season!”  

Banda became a breakout international star after becoming the first player to have back-to-back hat tricks in an Olympics, scoring three goals against both the Netherlands and China at the 2020 Tokyo Games, which were held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Barbra is a natural-born goal scorer and one of the most physically imposing forwards in the world," Pride General Manager Haley Carter said in a statement. “Turning only 24 years old this month, we have every confidence she will be an impact player in our attack for years to come.”

Banda had 16 goals and five assists with Shanghai Shengli last year. In 2020, she won the Chinese league's Golden Boot with 18 goals in 13 matches, twice the number of goals as the second-place player. In total, Banda scored 41 goals across 52 career games in Shanghai.

Banda, who made her international debut in 2016, scored in Zambia's Women's World Cup victory, a 3-1 group stage win over Costa Rica last summer in New Zealand. It was the 1,000th goal scored in the tournament's history.

Banda and Zambia's national women's soccer team, known as the Copper Queens, will continue their quest for 2024 Paris Olympics qualification, set to next face Morocco in the fourth Round of the 2024 CAF Women's Olympic qualifying tournament April 1-9. On Feb. 28, Banda pushed her nation to the next round with a brace over Ghana, including a stoppage-time match equalizer that pushed Zambia through 4-3 on aggregate.