It rings true that every star has a past that drove them to success. Manchester's City club's brilliant Afghan-Danish striker Nadia Nadim is one such person. Her journey from life under the Afghan Taliban, to becoming one of Europe's best footballers is gutsy and inspirational at best. She tops our admiration for her by training as a doctor despite her busy schedule. Women, strong women.
One of the five daughters of Rabani Nadim, Nadia jokes that her parents tried five times to have a son. He, however, she said, would constantly lay bets with his friends that she could run faster than their sons. And she did. An influential general in the Afghan army, Rabani was unfortunately murdered by the Taliban. Nadia remembers her father's love for sports. “My dad didn't necessarily try to push us into sports but he made us believe; you're girls but you can do whatever you want to do.” She remembers a large walled garden in Kabul where they would kick balls and race. Describing her life under the Taliban, Nadia said, “Everyone felt a difference; we were not allowed to be outside. Women were not supposed to work any more, you could not go and buy groceries alone any more. The fear was there before they came, you would hear stuff. They tried to do things to make people feel fear.”
Soon, violence escalated. The girls had to stay indoors. At the age of ten, when their father did not come home one day, they eventually discovered that he had been shot in an isolated spot used for executions. “We never found his body because there are a lot of wild animals in the area so they would just eat people,” she said. Their mother Hamida handed over all her money to ensure safe passage to London. They fled Kabul, flew to Italy, and then boarded a truck. They were inside the vehicle for 50 hours, and then told to get out. They were told they had arrived. It was only after an hour of wandering around in the wee hours of the day, when they bumped into a man who told them they were in Denmark.
“I knew nothing about Denmark. But we didn't care. Everyone was happy that we were safe and together,” Nadia said. The family went to a police station and Hamida explained they needed political asylum. After, what seemed like a never-ending process of interrogation and interviewing, the family was sent to live in a refugee camp. The Nadims lived there for six months before they were qualified for asylum.
The six months were crucial for Nadia. It was during this period that she became acquainted to the sport she is associated with now. Alongside the camp was a football club where boys and girls would train. Nadia, along with her sisters and other refugee kids would watch them. They spent days retrieving balls for the players from bushes. Nadia soon began to copy the skills back at the camp, undeterred with the lack of actual footballs. She soon mustered the courage to approach the girls to ask if she could join. With a welcoming coach and complying team members, a 12 year old Nadia was soon handed a note with the time and date of her first match.
The player remembers not owning a pair of football boots. She went with her mother to a second-hand store. They found a pair of old leather boots that were too small for her. She decided if she managed to push her feet in hot water, they would mould her feet. The 12 year old played her first ever match in a pair of shoes too tight, and feet full of blisters from the scalding.
The rest, as they say, was history. The girls soon began to grow. Despite the ups and downs in her life, Nadia calls football her only constant. “I love it, it makes me happy, and no matter how stressed I am and what's going on outside, as soon as I step on the field and see the ball, everything disappears,” she said, “It's so easy to play football. You can play it anywhere, you can play it alone, you can play it with a ball and if you don't have one you can kick something that's round. So basically, I think that's one of the reasons football is so popular in the world and loved by most people.”
Since her first stint with a ball, Nadia's career only went from strength to strength. She went from Danish clubs B52 Aalborg, Team Viborg, IK Skovbakken and Fortuna Hjørring to spells in the United States with Sky Blue FC and Portland Thorns. Nadia has been with Manchester City since January, and is already one of the main players. “It has been amazing and Manchester is awesome, besides the weather. I am still waiting for the sun, but I am really happy, plus I am close to my family, so it is a win-win.”
