Salimata Simporé


Salimata Simporé is a Burkinabé footballer who plays as a forward for Belarusian Premier League club FC Minsk and the Burkina Faso women's national team.

Club career

Simporé played in Burkina Faso for Princesses in 2005 and 2015, for USFA in 2016 and for Etincelles in 2019. In October 2006, Simporé was registered as a player for Equatorial Guinean club Las Vegas.

International career

Between 2006 and 2010, Burkinabé-born Simporé used to play for Equatorial Guinea as a naturalized player, having integrated the Equatorial Guinea's squads that won the 2008 African Women's Championship and reached the second place in the 2010 African Women's Championship, which allowed Equatorial Guinea to qualify for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup. Around April 2011, Simporé was removed from national team by the Italian-born Brazilian coach Marcelo Frigerio, who had recently assumed, just a few months before participating in the World Cup, that Simporé was male. Since then, Simporé was never called-up by Equatorial Guinea.
Simporé was a member of the Burkina Faso women's national football team in 2007, scoring 8 goals, and 2018.

International goals

Scores and results list Equatorial Guinea's goal tally first
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
118 November 2008Estadio de Malabo, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea1–05–22008 African Women's Championship
223 May 2010Sam Nujoma Stadium, Windhoek, Namibia4–15–12010 African Women's Championship qualification
38 November 2010Sinaba Stadium, Daveyton, South Africa2–13–12010 African Women's Championship
411 November 2010Sinaba Stadium, Daveyton, South Africa1–03–12010 African Women's Championship
511 November 2010Sinaba Stadium, Daveyton, South Africa3–03–12010 African Women's Championship

Scores and results list Burkina Faso's goal tally first
No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
114 February 2018Stade Robert Champroux, Abidjan, Ivory Coast1–05–12018 WAFU Women's Cup
216 February 2018Parc des sports de Treichville, Abidjan, Ivory Coast1–11–12018 WAFU Women's Cup
37 April 2018Stade du 4 Août, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso1–12–12018 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification
47 April 2018Stade du 4 Août, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso2–12–12018 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification
510 April 2018Independence Stadium, Bakau, Gambia1–21–22018 Africa Women Cup of Nations qualification

Gender controversy

Beyond the mechanism by which Simporé was naturalized by Equatorial Guinea, the main controversy arose regarding whether Simporé was actually a man. In 2015, Frigerio, now a former national team coach for Equatorial Guinea, told the Brazilian press Simporé is in fact a man.

Honors and awards

National team

;Equatorial Guinea