Former United States women’s captain Megan Rapinoe has leapt to the defense of Barbra Banda amid fierce controversy surrounding the Zambia soccer player’s gender.

Banda, 24, is the latest women’s sports star facing questions over her gender after she was crowned BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year over in the UK this week, a decision which sparked outrage given she was left out of Zambia’s Africa Cup of Nations squad in 2022 on ‘gender eligibility grounds’.

It is believed team bosses became aware that the striker’s ‘testosterone levels’ were higher than those permitted by the Confederation of African Football, meaning she was excluded from her country’s squad at the major international tournament.

However, after recently helping OIrlando Pride win the NWSL championship, and scoring four goals at the Paris Olympics with Zambia over the summer, the BBC named Banda as its top women’s soccer star for 2024 earlier this week.

Her victory has been criticized by certain women’s rights groups and members of the soccer community after her exclusion from AFCON two years ago, yet Rapinoe has come out in support of the Orlando forward and congratulated her on winning the award.

In a post on her Instagram story, the World Cup winner shared a photo of Banda with the NWSL trophy and wrote: ‘You’ve thrilled, entertained and inspired us, and the world, all year long. This is so deserved as is every bit of your success. You stand so much taller than the tiny people trying to tear you down.

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Ex-USWNT captain Megan Rapinoe has defended a soccer star embroiled in gender controversy

Zambia and Orlando Pride women’s striker Barbra Banda is facing questions over her gender

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Rapinoe congratulated Banda on winning a women’s soccer award despite the outrage it caused

‘Proud as hell that you’re a womens footballer, pushing the games to new heights. We love you Babs’.

Rapinoe also added: ‘and to all the hateful little people out there hate hate hatin, HOP TF OFF, yall are sad.’

Banda’s award win has proved highly controversial, with author JK Rowling one of many to hit out at the BBC’s decision on social media.

Rowling shared a post on X reporting that Banda had scooped the women’s soccer prize and wrote: ‘Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women’s faces.’

The latest gender dispute comes after a turbulent summer involving women’s boxer Imane Khelif, who was accused of being a biological male while storming her way to a gold medal in the welterweight category at this summer’s Olympics.

The controversy came after Khelif was disqualified from the World Championships in 2023 by the International Boxing Associations (IBA) after it was claimed that she failed a gender eligibility test.

However, the Algerian insisted she was a woman and her father even produced her birth certificate which said she was born female.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) repeatedly defended her right to compete throughout the games, while the IBA’s test results and credibility were also called into question.

Earlier this month, a report in French magazine Le Correspondant – which is yet to be confirmed as legitimate – alleged that Khelif has ‘male characteristics’ and XY chromosomes, something she has repeatedly denied.

Appearing on Italian TV shortly after it was released, the Olympic champion attacked the journalist who leaked that unverified medical report and promised to take them to court.