During their preparations for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, the Zambian women’s national team took advantage of their stay in Switzerland to visit the FIFA Museum in Zurich.
Zambia’s women’s national team are on the verge of a historic milestone. On 22 July 2023, the Africans will face the 2011 world champions Japan in their first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup match.
The Copper Queens, as the players of the national team are known, are preparing for the tournament in Germany. Last Friday, in a warm-up match in Switzerland, they took on the Swiss women’s national team, who have also qualified for the World Cup. After leading 3:1, the team from Zambia conceded the 3:3 equaliser shortly before the end, which proved to be the final score.
On Sunday, the players and staff took advantage of their stay in Switzerland to visit the FIFA Museum in Zurich. They presented the FIFA Museum with the team’s new jersey for the World Cup. Due to the size of the delegation with almost 50 people, they were then divided into two groups for a tour of the exhibition in.
Naturally, the showcases of the previous FIFA Women’s World Cups were a major focus during the tours. The most photographed object, however, was the Winner’s Trophy from the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup. A representative of the national team said that the sight of it was especially moving since the team was the first Zambian team ever to participate in a World Cup.
The biggest surprise for the team, but especially for captain Barbra Banda, came at the current special exhibition “211 Cultures. One Game”. There, unbeknownst to Banda, her own jersey from Zambia’s Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games is on display. Banda is the first woman to score two hat-tricks in a single Olympic tournament.
After the tour ended and the team signed the museum’s guest book, they headed back to their camp in Germany. There they will meet the German national team in a final preparation match later this week. The team then leaves for Australia to make history. After the opening match against Japan, Zambia will face Spain on 26 July and Costa Rica on 31 July in the group stage.
