{"id":2972,"date":"2024-02-17T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=2972"},"modified":"2024-02-17T14:19:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T14:19:09","slug":"bay-fc-signs-zambian-soccer-star-racheal-kundananji-for-reported-787000-world-record-fee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/?p=2972","title":{"rendered":"Bay FC Signs Zambian Soccer Star Racheal Kundananji For Reported $787,000 World Record Fee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bay FC, the newest team in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cnn.com\/2023\/03\/23\/sport\/nwsl-unhappy-fifa-likeness-ability-spt-intl\/index.html\">National Women\u2019s Soccer League<\/a>\u00a0(NWSL), has made an ambitious statement of intent ahead of the upcoming season by signing Zambian international Racheal Kundananji.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kundananji&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/racheal_kundananji\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reposted<\/a>&nbsp;the team announcement on her Instagram account. She is believed to be the most expensive female soccer player in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople in Zambia will be surprised, but they will be so happy,\u201d the forward&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/africa\/68282325\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a>&nbsp;BBC Sport Africa. \u201cI want to give the [Bay FC] fans what they want \u2013 to enjoy the games, to enjoy seeing me playing and scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kundananji joins Bay FC from Spanish side&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/madridcff.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Madrid CFF<\/a>&nbsp;for a reported world record fee of \u20ac735,000 (around $787,000),&nbsp;according to multiple reports including&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/39500214\/bay-fc-signs-zambia-star-racheal-kundananji-madrid-ccf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ESPN<\/a>. CNN has contacted Bay FC, Madrid CFF and the NWSL regarding the transfer fee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The contract runs through the 2027 season with an option for an additional year in 2028, Bay FC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are delighted to add Racheal to our group,\u201d Bay FC general manager Lucy Rushton&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bayfc.com\/press-releases\/bay-fc-signs-zambian-forward-racheal-kundananji\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;in a press release from the club. \u201cShe is a tremendous talent with dynamic attacking qualities and an incredible physical profile who has produced for both club and country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-fd2c7dc3ea7a1b3bd2e6b23abbe0e80b ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:400px; height:400px; max-height:400px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wB1l0wBm1Gg?feature=oembed&color=red&rel=0&controls=1&start=&end=&fs=0&iv_load_policy=0&autoplay=0&mute=0&modestbranding=0&cc_load_policy=1&playsinline=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen referrerpolicy=\"origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRacheal has a composure in-front of goal and a natural ability to score with different types of finishes and from various locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe believe she will continue to grow and develop at our club, showcasing her skillset and adding to the array of exciting talent we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 23-year-old Kundananji has scored eight league goals in 14 appearances for Madrid CFF this campaign and netted 25 times in 29 games last season, ending the year as the second-top-scorer in Spain\u2019s Liga F.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first African player \u2013 male or female \u2013 to break the transfer record, she will join Nigerian striker Asisat Oshoala and Scottish defender Jen Beattie at the San Jose-based Bay FC, which will become the 14th team in the NWSL this coming season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prior to representing Madrid CFF, Kundananji played for Spanish side Eibar and BIIK Kazygurt in Kazakhstan, where she won back-to-back league titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She represented Zambia at last year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup \u2013 the country\u2019s first appearance at the tournament \u2013 and scored in a 3-1 win against Costa Rica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new NSWL season starts on March 16. Bay FC was established in April last year, co-founded by former US Women\u2019s National Team players Brandi Chastain, Leslie Osborne, Danielle Slaton and Aly Wagner along with financial backing from global investment firm Sixth Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>CNN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bay FC, the newest team in the\u00a0National Women\u2019s Soccer League\u00a0(NWSL), has made an ambitious statement of intent ahead of the upcoming season by signing Zambian international Racheal Kundananji. Kundananji&nbsp;reposted&nbsp;the team announcement on her Instagram account. She is believed to be the most expensive female soccer player in history. \u201cPeople in Zambia will be surprised, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,11,22],"tags":[929,930,931],"class_list":["post-2972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","category-sports","category-world","tag-bay-fc","tag-racheal-kundananji","tag-zambia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2974,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions\/2974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}