Siga Tandia (born 10 November 1987 in Paris) is a French football player of

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...

an descent. Tandia plays as a defender and is a member of the

France women's national football team The France women's national football team (french: Équipe de France féminine de football, sometimes shortened as Féminin A) represents France in international women's football. The team is directed by the French Football Federation (FFF). Fr ...

having made her debut on 28 October 2009 against

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and t ...

Career

Tandia was born in Paris and grew up in the commune of

Clichy-sous-Bois Clichy-sous-Bois () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from central Paris.judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo") ...

having earned a brown belt as a child. Tandia, who considered herself a

tomboy A tomboy is a term for a girl or a young woman with masculine qualities. It can include wearing androgynous or unfeminine clothing and actively engage in physical sports or other activities and behaviors usually associated with boys or men ...

, initially was hesitant to playing football with girls and preferred playing with boys. Eventually, she re-considered and joined the women's section of local club Tremblay FC, who were playing in the Division d'Honneur Régionale.Siga Tandia, une bleue chez les Bleues
/ref> After almost three years at the club, she ventured to the city of

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metr ...

joining the women's section of

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligu ...

club

Tours FC Tours Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tours (), is a French association football club based in Tours, the capital city of the Indre-et-Loire department. The club was formed in 1919 and currently play at the fifth level of French ...

. The women's section were, ironically, playing in D2 Féminine, the second division of women's football. Over the course of two seasons with the club, Tandia played in 37 total matches scoring two goals. Following the 2007–08 season, Tandia moved up a division joining D1 Féminine mainstay

ASJ Soyaux ASJ Soyaux Charente (''Association Sportive Jeunesse de Soyaux Charente''), commonly known as Soyaux, is a women's football club founded in 1968 and based in Soyaux, France. The club had played in France's top division except for spans of relega ...

. At Soyaux, Tandia appearing in 18 league matches during the 2008–09 season starting them all. Tandia continued her consistent play for the 2009–10 season appearing in 9 of the 10 league matches contested so far this season.

International career

Tandia had never appeared for France in the youth sections of the women's national team. She did appear for her nation at the 2009 University Games, held in Belgrade, Serbia. France finished in 4th-place position after losing 1–4 to Great Britain in the bronze medal match. In October 2009, Tandia was a surprise selection to the national team for

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification Qualification for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup determines which 15 teams join Germany, the hosts of the 2011 tournament, to play for the Women's World Cup. Europe has 5.5 qualifying berths (including the hosts), Asia 3 berths, North and Cent ...

matches against

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

and

. She received the call up notice via SMS from team manager

Bruno Bini Bruno Bini (born 1 October 1954) is a former French football manager who formerly managed the French women's national team. Under his charge, his team finished in fourth position in both the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup and 2012 Summer Olympics ...

. She made her debut in the Estonia match appearing as a substitute in the 77th minute for

Sandrine Soubeyrand Sandrine Soubeyrand (born 16 August 1973) is a French former footballer and current coach of France women's national under-17 football team. She played as a midfielder for France national team, Félines Saint-Cyr, Caluire and Juvisy. At club l ...

. France won the match 12–0. Tandia returned to the team for another qualification match the following month against

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

. She did not appear in the match, which France won 2–0.

References

External links

* * *
France player profile
1987 births Living people Footballers from Paris French women's footballers France women's international footballers French sportspeople of Malian descent ASJ Soyaux-Charente players Women's association football defenders Division 1 Féminine players Footballers from Seine-Saint-Denis People from Clichy-sous-Bois {{France-women-footy-bio-stub