Refugee in Denmark at the age of 12, Nadia Nadim won the first French Cup for PSG while continuing her medical studies. Its story is a hymn to will and hard work.
More than in her dreams, Nadia believes in the will, the one she deployed to overcome personal trials and the obstacles of exile. “I was born into a well-to-do family in Afghanistan, with a father general who held high government positions, until the country fell into the war. I was 4 years old “, says Nadia, who wrote a book called My story (ed. Marabout). The family then faces the bombardments, fear, then the arrival of the Taliban.
They are the ones who are going to execute his father in the middle of the desert, with a bullet in the head. Nadia was only 6 years old at the time. “With him, it is the pillar of my mother like ours who disappeared. We were five girls. He was a very authoritarian man, very hard, but also protective. Even though I was a girl, destined to be married, he taught me to be tough, to defend myself, to never let go and … to kick a ball, says Nadia. When she died, it was our mother who became our pillar. “
Refugee in Denmark with her mother and sisters, Nadia constantly plays football
This Mother Courage, an intellectual who did not have the career she would have deserved, stifled by patriarchal customs, will organize a few years later the flight to Europe in order to give her daughters a chance to access education and work. Smugglers, false papers … their journey is worthy of an action movie! Because a switching error of their clandestine truck leads them to Denmark instead of England.
What does it matter! Nothing confuses this mother full of convictions: the political refugees will be Danish, and the good grades, the hello. Schooled even though they don’t speak a word of Danish, 12-year-old Nadia and her sisters quickly make their mother proud, even if, in the refugee center, where families come together by cultural traditions, they denote. Their objective is not to dream of marriage while smiling gently at the suitors who present themselves, but it is not to let themselves be walked on and to go fishing for old punctured balls to play football!
The indefatigable only takes off his crampons to work on his medical lessons
“We didn’t have the money to buy a new one, but the game breaks down borders, language as well as gender, explains Nadia, and we quickly showed the boys that we had it under our feet!” Nadia quickly stands out. Able to go to train in the snow with old sneakers found in a thrift store, she misses nothing of the good gestures spotted in international matches broadcast on TV.
By dint of prowling around the Gug football club near its asylum center in Aalborg, she is allowed to be tested. She climbs the ranks of regional tournaments, becomes pro at the national level at 18 … and accumulates odd jobs to pay for travel. The indefatigable only takes off his crampons to work on his … medicine lessons. “I never knew how to choose, even if the secretariat of the university tried to force me by refusing to arrange my schedule, details Nadia. I quickly found students to send me the lessons.”
Nadia is now Unesco Ambassador for the emancipation of girls around the world
Yet it was there, in 2017, that the little refugee of the year 2000 was elected “Danish of the year”. All her family, her mother first, rejoices! But Nadia’s dream is Paris. A dream come true in early 2019 when the young woman joined PSG, where she integrated very quickly. And, with her customary obstinacy, she learns a new language. “I love Paris, the Eiffel Tower, croissants, everyday life in Yvelines, where the club is located, with days of training, muscu, physiotherapy, studies and rest”, she enumerates.
Today, she also became an ambassador of Unesco for the emancipation of girls around the world. Because, she is sure, happiness passes through education, and freedom through football. Or the opposite ! And to those who talk to her about couple and family, Nadia, 33, answers: “One day of course, after my football career, in two or three years. I will also finish my last semester of medicine!” Perhaps it will be soon: just after the coronation, the champion has just left the Parisian club …
Loading widget
Subscribe to the Closermag.fr newsletter to receive the latest news free of charge