Maria Jamila Khan ( ur, ماریہ جمیلہ خان) is an American-born Pakistani professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Born in the United States, she represents and captains the Pakistan national team.

Career

In 2009, Khan joined

Denver Pioneers The Denver Pioneers are the sports teams of the University of Denver (DU). They play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Denver is a member of The Summit League for men's and women's basketball, swimming and diving ...

in the United States, where she was a goalkeeper. In 2013, Khan moved to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

to pursue her master's degree. There, she transitioned into a midfielder for an amateur side where signed for an Emirati side, where she became a midfielder. It was there that she learnt more about women football in Pakistan, which eventually led her to play for

WAPDA The Pakistan Water & Power Development Authority (WAPDA; ur, ) is a government-owned public utility maintaining power and water in Pakistan, although it does not manage thermal power. WAPDA includes Tarbela and Mangla dams among its resources. ...

at the

2018 National Women Football Championship The 2018 National Women's Football Championship was the 11th season of the National Women Football Championship, the top-tier of women's football in Pakistan. Pakistan Army won their maiden title after beating WAPDA 3-0 on Penalty shoot-out (assoc ...

. In October 2020, she was one of the 30 players called up for the training camp of the Pakistan women's national team After that, Khan signed for an Emirati club. She received praises from all across Pakistan including

Prime Minister of Pakistan The prime minister of Pakistan ( ur, , romanized: Wazīr ē Aʿẓam , ) is the head of government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen cabinet, despite the president of Paki ...

Shehbaz Sharif for her ‘bend-it-like-Beckham’ goal against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

International goals

Personal life

Khan is the niece of Jahangir Khan, who is widely considered to be the best squash player of all time, and the granddaughter of squash player

Hashim Khan Hashim Khan ( ps, ; – 18 August 2014) was a squash player from Pakistan. He won the British Open Squash Championships (the then ''de facto'' world championship) a total of seven times, from 1951 to 1956, and then again in 1958. Khan ...

References

External links

Maria Khan
at Global Sports Archive
Maria Khan
at Top Drawer Soccer Women's association football goalkeepers Women's association football midfielders Expatriate women's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Living people Soccer players from Denver American women's soccer players American sportspeople of Pakistani descent American expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates American expatriate women's soccer players Pakistan women's international footballers Pakistani expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Pakistani women's footballers Year of birth missing (living people) Denver Pioneers women's soccer players {{US-women-footy-bio-stub