Nadia Nadim ( ps, نادیه ندیم; born 2 January 1988) is a 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, rugb ...

and physician who plays as a striker for

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

club

Racing Louisville FC Racing Louisville Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League team based in Louisville, Kentucky. It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team is owned by Soccer Holdings LLC, which also owns Louisville City FC of the USL Cham ...

. Born in Afghanistan, she represents the Denmark national team at international level. Nadim is considered the most influential and greatest Afghan female footballer of all time, particularly because she won the French league title in the 2020–21 season with

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

Early life and career

Nadia was born in

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...

and raised in Afghanistan until her father, an

Afghan National Army Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity ** Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pas ...

(ANA) general, was executed by the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

in 2000. Her family then fled to Denmark, where she began her football career, playing for B52 Aalborg and Team Viborg.

Club career

Early career

Nadim played for B52 Aalborg, Team Viborg from 2005 to 2006 and

IK Skovbakken Vejlby Skovbakken Aarhus (; commonly known as VSK Aarhus) is a Danish Association football, football club based in Risskov, a neighbourhood in Aarhus. The club was founded in 2016 when the football departments of :da:Vejlby IK Fodbold, Vejlby IK F ...

from 2006 to 2012, before moving to

Fortuna Hjørring Fortuna Hjørring is a women's association football team from Hjørring, Denmark. The club was formed in 1966 and play in green and white. Their biggest achievement in European football was reaching the 2002–03 UEFA Women's Cup final where they ...

in 2012. She made her Champions League debut in September the same year, scoring both goals in a 2–1 win over Scottish Champions Glasgow City. Nadia Nadim 2016-09-04 (29357114112) (cropped)

Nadia Nadim 2016-09-04 (29357114112) (cropped)

Sky Blue FC

Nadim joined NWSL club

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

near the end of the 2014 NWSL season. Playing in six games, she scored seven goals and registered three assists. She was named player of the week on 19 August and player of the month for the NWSL on 14 August. On 16 February 2015, Sky Blue announced that Nadim had been signed to play for Sky Blue in the 2015 season as well.

Portland Thorns FC

On 14 January 2016, Nadim was traded to

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

. Playing as a striker, she finished the 2016 season as the team's top scorer with nine goals in 20 games as the team won the 2016 NWSL Shield. In the 2017 season, she helped the team to a second-place finish in the league and victory in the

NWSL Championship The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games can ...

game.

Manchester City

On 28 September 2017, Nadim signed for FA Women's Super League side

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

for the 2018 season. She joined the club in January 2018, and made her debut with Manchester City on 7 January 2018 in a 5–2 win over Reading. After six minutes on the ground she scored her first goal for the team, and 26 minutes later she made an assist when Manchester City scored their second goal in the match. In her second match for the team she scored the winning goal in a 1–0 victory over Chelsea in the semi-final of the Continental Tyres Cup. On 26 July 2018, while on the US tour with Manchester City, the BBC reported that Nadim had requested a transfer out of the club, stating that she had never felt at home there and wanted to leave. On 19 December 2018, Manchester City announced that Nadim would be departing the club and her contract would be terminated on 1 January 2019, allowing her to sign with another club.

Paris Saint-Germain

On 3 January 2019, Nadim signed for

. On 9 July 2019, Nadim extended her contract for

after a successful first season. She was later rewarded with the captain's armband and named the team's vice captain for the 2019–20 season. She scored 13 goals and made 13 assists in 16 league and cup games.

Racing Louisville FC

On 9 June 2021, Nadim signed with

, returning to the NWSL four years after leaving Portland Thorns FC for Manchester City. In September 2021, with the NWSL reeling from abuse scandals, she accused

NJ/NY Gotham FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2 ...

management of forging her signature on a contract extension so they could trade her rights to Portland in January 2016. She also accused league staffers of pressuring her to have a surgery for her season-ending ACL injury in the United States rather than abroad, threatening that "if something went wrong with the surgery outside of US they could consider taking actions against me."

International career

Under Danish nationality law Nadim could not apply for citizenship until turning 18 years old in 2006. When citizenship was eventually granted in 2008,

FIFA eligibility rules As the governing body of association football, FIFA is responsible for maintaining and implementing the rules that determine whether an association football player is eligible to represent a particular country in officially recognised internation ...

blocked Nadim from playing for Denmark, because she had not yet been resident for the requisite five years after turning 18. A subsequent challenge from the

Danish Football Association The Danish Football Union ( da, Dansk Boldspil-Union; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of the Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues and the men's and women's national te ...

(DBU) led to

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

's legal department making an exception to the rules in Nadim's case. Nadim immediately became a member of the Denmark national team, making her debut in the 2009 Algarve Cup in a 2–0 defeat by the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. In doing so, she became the first

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

Dane to represent a Denmark senior national football team. She participated in all three of Denmark's games at UEFA European Championship 2009 in Finland. She was named in national

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Kenneth Heiner-Møller Kenneth Heiner-Møller (born Kenneth Heiner Christiansen; 17 January 1971) is a Danish football manager and former player. He is the former manager of the Canadian women's national team. In 1994–1995 he played for Ferencvárosi TC in Hungary, ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

squad for UEFA European Championship 2013. In Denmark's opening group match against hosts

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Nadim featured as a substitute in an eventful 1–1 draw. In the

UEFA Women's Euro 2017 The 2017 UEFA European Women's Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2017, was the 12th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEFA for the women's national tea ...

tournament, she was instrumental in Denmark's advancement, scoring the tying goal in Denmark's eventual 2–1 win over favorites Germany in the knockout stages, and scoring a go-ahead goal in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, which Denmark ultimately lost to host Netherlands 4–2. On 27 October 2020, Denmark had to win away against Italy to qualify for the UEFA European Championship 2022, and Nadim was crowned player of the match after scoring two crucial goals in Denmark's 3–1 win over Italy in Florence. The two goals secured Denmark's spot in the upcoming Euros. On 24 June 2022, she played her 100th match for Denmark in a friendly match against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Style of play

Nadim is recognized for her energetic and determined style of play. She is successful from the penalty spot, having converted all but one of her penalties in the NWSL (and with the one miss being a save by the goalkeeper and immediately scored by Nadim on the rebound) and both of her attempts at Euro 2017.

Outside football

Criticism of sportswashing of Qatar

In December 2021, Nadim received criticism in the media for describing Qatar as a nation that helps people in need. Her positive description of the desert state is conflicting with the general consensus in the Danish population and the opinion formulated by the Danish FA on the oppression of human rights and poor conditions for migrant workers in Qatar. Subsequently, Nadim denied having received money for her performance in Qatar, which turned out not to be true when Danish newspaper '' B.T.'' found out that she had received payment for attending the education summit in the country. As a consequence of her role as an ambassador for World Cup in Qatar, Danish Refugee Council removed Nadim from her role as a goodwill ambassador. Nadim stated on her Twitter that her collaboration with the Danish Refugee Council had been inactive since the beginning of 2019. However, ''B.T.'' proved this statement inaccurate.

Personal life and medical career

Nadim attended

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...

Aarhus University Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

(remotely during the football season) with the aim of becoming a surgeon when her playing days are over. In 2020, she was assisting in surgery. She qualified as a doctor in January 2022. Nadim is

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, and speaks nine languages. Afghan singer

Aryana Sayeed Aryana Sayeed (Dari/Pashto: ) is an Afghan singer, songwriter and TV personality. She sings mostly in Dari but also has many songs in Pashto and some in Uzbek. She is one of Afghanistan's most famous musical artist, performing regularly in con ...

is her aunt. In 2018, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' ranked her Number 20 in their "Most Powerful Women in International Sports" list. Her mother, Hadima Nadim, was killed by a truck on 23 November 2022, aged 57. When Nadia learned that her mother had died, she departed during her work as a pundit for British broadcaster ITV at the Denmark–Tunisia match in the Men's World Cup.

Endorsements

Nadia signed a representation contract with Nike in 2017, making her the first ever Danish female football player to be represented by Nike. Nike has used Nadia in many of their branches on top of doing work for the football department. She has also done commercials for

Air Jordan Air Jordan is an American brand of basketball shoes produced by American corporation Nike. The first Air Jordan shoe was produced for Hall of Fame former basketball player Michael Jordan during his time with the Chicago Bulls in late 1984 an ...

as well as Nike's collaborations with

Martine Rose Martine Rose (born November 24, 1980) is a British-Jamaican menswear designer and founder of the Martine Rose label. Her designs draw inspiration from her experiences and interest in rave, hip-hop and punk subcultures. Early life and educatio ...

. Besides her work with Nike, Nadia is also known for her work with Visa and

Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG, often styled as BOSS, is a luxury fashion house headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, accessories, footwear, and fragrances. Hugo Boss is one of the largest German clothing companies, ...

. In 2016, Danish TV station DR released a four-episode long documentary about Nadia that followed her from Denmark to the United States, documenting her player development with the Portland Thorns. In 2018, Danish publisher JP/Politiken published Nadia Nadim's autobiography called "Min Historie" which translates to "My Story". The book got nominated for Sports book of the year. The book was released in French on 26 May 2021, through the French publisher

Hachette Book Group Hachette Book Group (HBG) is a publishing company owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world. Hachette Livre is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Gr ...

Career statistics

Honours

Portland Thorns FC *

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a m ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

NWSL Playoffs The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games can ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Manchester City *

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

runners-up: 2017–18 Paris Saint-Germain *

Division 1 Féminine The Division 1 Féminine, shortened as D1 Féminine or D1F, and currently known as D1 Arkema for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in France. Run by the French Football Federation, the league is contested by twel ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Denmark *

UEFA Women's Euro The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years, is the main competition in women's association football between national teams of the UEFA confederation. The competition is the women's equivalent ...

runners-up:

Individual * Portland Thorns 2016 top goalscorer

Awards and recognition

In July 2019, Nadia Nadim was named

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

Champion for Girls and Women's Education. She received this recognition for her role in promoting

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

, her contribution to the Organization's

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

al action prioritizing young people and advocacy for girls and women's

at an international scale, among others.

References

;Match reports

External links

* *
Profile
at

Profile
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nadim, Nadia 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Herat Sportspeople of Afghan descent Afghan Muslims Danish Muslims Afghan emigrants to Denmark Naturalised citizens of Denmark Afghan women's footballers Danish women's footballers Women's association football forwards VSK Aarhus (women) players Fortuna Hjørring players NJ/NY Gotham FC players Portland Thorns FC players Manchester City W.F.C. players Paris Saint-Germain Féminine players Racing Louisville FC players Elitedivisionen players National Women's Soccer League players Women's Super League players Division 1 Féminine players Denmark women's international footballers Danish expatriate women's footballers Danish expatriate sportspeople in England Danish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Danish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate women's footballers in England Expatriate women's footballers in France FIFA Century Club UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players Association football forwards Denmark international footballers