Danish footballer Nadia Nadim on the importance of perseverance

Nadia Nadim is the definition of a Renaissance woman.

Not only has she scored more than 200 goals and represented the Danish national team 98 times, the former Paris Saint-Germain forward is a polyglot, speaking 11 languages. As if that wasn’t enough, Nadim has spent the last five-and-a-half years completing a medical degree whilst pursuing her professional football career. “I'm hopefully going to become a doctor in January or February. I want to go into reconstructive plastic surgery,” she says.

Born in Afghanistan, she had to flee the country with her mother and four sisters after the Taliban came into power and murdered her father, a general in the Afghan army. “Because of the Taliban rules, you weren’t allowed to go anywhere unaccompanied as a woman in Afghanistan. It made life impossible for us.” Her mother – an educated woman who had worked as a school inspector – sold all of their possessions to buy passage to England, where they have family. “It was my first time in an airport. We were given passports, and told what to wear and what to say.”

After flying to Italy and spending a couple of days in a dodgy basement, the family was told to get on a truck. “Next thing I knew, we were running. My older sister and I were trying to help my mom, who held the little one in her arms.” The family spent 50 hours in the back of the truck. When they got out, they didn’t know where they were. “After an hour or so, we were told we had arrived in Denmark, not England.” The first police officer Nadim met bought her a banana. “Twenty kronor and a smile,” she tells me. “It was the biggest kindness I’d ever experienced in my life.”

Since then, Nadim has worked diligently to make the same impact on the world and the people around her. “You know, being happy is a choice. So I decided that, fuck it, I don’t want to think about this negative stuff. I want to look at the positive stuff.” Working closely with multiple charity organisations, Nadim has inspired a new generation of young women. “That’s something I want to teach them, how important it is to be positive. To spread a bit of kindness everywhere you go because it affects the people around you. I know that it has affected me.

Her work introducing girls in refugee camps to football is something she cherishes – especially since she herself first discovered the sport that way. “There was a football club right next to the camp. That was the first time I discovered that girls were allowed to play football. I mean, I knew what football was. My dad was a sportsman, and he loved it and introduced it to us. But that was the first time I saw women play.”

For Nadim, the new life in Denmark and the discovery of football lit a fire. “I was given a second chance, and I didn't want to waste it,” she says. The sport taught Nadim so much of what she knows about life. “That was my ticket into the community. Into having friends. Into learning the language faster than most other kids do.” However, Nadim’s experience wasn’t always easy. “As a kid, I experienced a lot of racism, and I guess I didn't really understand what was happening. At the time, I thought maybe they didn’t like that I was killing it at football.”

Awareness of racism in football has grown markedly in recent years. The shootout loss in the final of Euro 2020 saw England players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka face a torrent of abuse. “It was awful seeing how they were treated by their own fans. But I also saw a lot of good coming out of it,” says Nadim, referring to the subsequent rallying against racism among the fans. “That is how you do it. You start educating your neighbours, saying this is not OK. Or tell your friend to stop. And for me, it is just about keep going, keep educating. Racism and all this unfairness that exists all comes down to a lack of education or ignorance. They don't know better.

Nadim has time and time again moved the goalposts for her fellow footballers. She’s stubborn and decisive, with clear ambitions. She joined PSG to help them win the French league for the first time, which they achieved in June this year when they dethroned Olympique Lyonnaise, who had won the previous 14 titles. Having completed her mission, she left the club to pursue a new aim with the recently formed US-based Racing Louisville. “I haven't really reached my biggest achievement yet. I always have a new goal.” A moment she is proud of, however, was being named Dane of the Year in 2017. “For someone who at one point wasn’t even considered Danish, who had to wait seven years to be accepted, that was a big moment for me, and it showed me everything is possible.”