Life Stories
Nadia Nadim
Beginnings
Nadia Nadim was born in Herat, Afghanistan in 1988. Her father was a general in the ANA (Afghan National Army). In 2000, when Nadia was twelve, her father was executed by the Taliban. Nadia escaped from Afghanistan with her mother and four sisters, travelling via Pakistan to Italy; finally finding a home in Denmark. Nadia started playing football with Aalborg B52. She joined Fortuna Hjorring in Nordjylland and had a big impact on women’s senior football as a goal-scoring winger.
The Danish girl
In 2014 Nadia Nadim emigrated again, to the United States to play for Sky Blue of New Jersey in the NWSL. She played well there but was then transferred to Portland Thorns in the Pacific Northwest. Among all these travels, she remained a key player for Denmark. She first played for the national team in 2009 and currently has 73 caps for her adopted country.
The Future?
Nadia never felt completely settled in North America, and faced problems obtaining Danish citizenship because she had not lived in Denmark for long enough. She came back to Europe in 2018, to play for Manchester City, before moving to Paris St Germain. Nadia is now a Danish citizen, studying medicine at Aarhus University in her spare time. She speaks nine languages!
Thinking points
Nadia Nadim’s life has been shaped by migration: escaping from war-torn Afghanistan to Denmark as a young girl; moving to East Coast America and then the Pacific Northwest to make her career in football; then returning to Europe, first Manchester then Paris. In her spare time, Nadia has qualified as a reconstructive surgeon. She is still only 31 years old.
Educators could look at the life story of Nadia Nadim and work with young people to consider this question:
- How much can we learn from Nadia’s life story so far about the many different forms of migration in a globalised world?
Find out more
Find out more about Nadia Nadim by going to her own site. Or you can read her interview with the guardian or you watch her here. She was also designated as UNESCO Champion for Girls’ and Women’s Education, read more about that here.
COVER Image
Nadia Nadim playing for the Portland Thorns FC in 2017 (Wikimedia Commons).
Life Story
26
LIFE STORIES To discover now
Do you wanna know more?
HISTORY CAN BE EXPLORED THROUGH THE LIVES OF INDIVIDUALS
Stories
Browse our collection of stories about football history and inclusion. With the history of football being made up of millions of stories, of individuals and communities, of movements and processes, we offer stories that can inspire our cultural conversations today.
Videos
Get to know untold stories where individuals are making history with football. When faced with insurmountable challenges, individuals past and present can use football as a cultural force to foster positive change in society. We honour these individuals and tell their ‘untold’ stories in short videos.
Educational Resources
Explore our innovative educational resources that use football’s history, heritage and legacy to engage young people. The resources include ready-made lesson plans and historical source collections for school history education as well as toolkit with activities for non-formal settings.
Trending Stories
Refugees
In the wake of the 2015 migration peak, activists and volunteers across Europe have been involved in supporting refugees, sometimes with the simple act of offering space and friendship to participate in football through grassroots clubs to help newcomers integrate.
FC Union Berlin: A rebellious football club in a rebellious city
BBC Sport’s Football Focus visits Bundesliga side FC Union Berlin, a “rebellious” football club from East Berlin with a special set of fans, playing their first season in Germany’s top flight 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
LATEST POST You may also be interested in
Formation for Human Rights
A class of high school history students in Oslo was asked to create an ideal starting XI line-up based on Human Rights. Find out why and how it went.
Pass, Shoot, Goal! Football in the Jazz Age – a review
A loving fan and musician put together his two passions and created this compilation of tunes from the Jazz Age.
Mo Salah’s Song to Integration
Prayer days on stadiums, faith rooms and inclusive chants: here is how English football is adapting to a changing world.
Engage young people with football history
Engage young people through Football Makes History’s own Guidebook and Toolkit for promoting social inclusion in formal education or Non-formal settings
21 short stories of football in Amsterdam
Telling the history of a city through football stories: a celebration of Amsterdam.
Angel City FC: An in-vitro football sensation
Angel City FC, the brand new women-majority owned and run club in Los Angeles
