Nadia Nadim (; 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, rugby lea ...

who plays as a striker for the

Damallsvenskan The (; ), known as OBOS for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Sweden. It is one of the best women's leagues in the world, and was founded in 1988. The division consists of a league of 14 teams. From 2013, t ...

club Hammarby, on loan from Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

. Born in Afghanistan, she plays for the Denmark national team. Nadim is considered the most influential and greatest Afghan female footballer of all time, particularly because she has won league titles in two countries, the USA league title in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

with the

Portland Thorns Portland Thorns FC is an American professional soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team NWSL, which received supp ...

and the French league title in

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 ...

with

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain () or simply PSG, is a French professional Association football, football club based in Paris. They compete in Ligue 1, the French football league system, top d ...

. Nadim was named the Danish Footballer of the Year in 2016 and 2017.

Early life and career

Nadia was born in

Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in 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 (''Se ...

, Afghanistan and raised there during her early childhood in a wealthy family. When Nadim was 9 years old her father, an

Afghan National Army The Islamic National Army (, ), also referred to as the Islamic Emirate Army and the Afghan Army, is the army, land force branch of the Afghan Armed Forces. The roots of an army in Afghanistan can be traced back to the early 18th century when th ...

(ANA) general, was executed by the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

. When she was 11, Nadim, her mother and her four sisters fled Afghanistan and arrived in Denmark as refugees. She recounted later that when she was in the refugee camp she received football training. Shortly after arriving in Denmark, when 12 years old, she continued playing football and joined the small local club GUG in

Aalborg Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...

. Her senior career began at 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 football club based in Risskov, a neighbourhood in Aarhus. The club was founded in 2016 when the football departments of Vejlby IK Fodbold and Idrætsklubben Skovbakken decid ...

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 the ...

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.

Sky Blue FC

Nadim joined NWSL club

Sky Blue FC Gotham Football Club is an American professional soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 un ...

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 Portland Thorns FC is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Portland, Oregon, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team NWSL ...

. 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 NWSL Championship is the annual championship game of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-flight women's soccer league in the United States. It is the culmination of the NWSL playoffs, which is contested by the teams with the ...

game.

Manchester City

On 28 September 2017, Nadim signed for

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

side

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

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 Paris Saint-Germain 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

Racing Louisville FC Racing Louisville Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in Louisville, Kentucky, that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team i ...

, 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 Gotham Football Club is an American professional Association football, soccer team based in the New York metropolitan area that competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sk ...

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." Nadim's Racing Louisville contract expired in December 2023. She left Racing Louisville as the club's best ever goal scorer.

AC Milan

On 27 January 2024, Nadim signed with

for the rest of the 2023–24 season. On 26 March 2025, AC Milan announced that Nadim would be on loan with

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differ ...

for the remainder of the season. After she left for Hammerby she complained that her coach in Milan, Suzanne Bakker, made her feel like "training in the refugee camp was better". Nadia being from Afghanistan, and played football in a refugee camp.

International career

Under

Danish nationality law The primary law governing nationality of Denmark is the Danish Citizenship Act (), which came into force on 27 May 1950. Regulations apply to the entire Danish Realm, which includes the country of Denmark itself, the Faroe Islands, and Greenl ...

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

FIFA eligibility rules In association football, the FIFA eligibility rules are the eligibility criteria established by FIFA (International Association Football Federation), the sport's governing body, to facilitate the selection of representative teams for internationa ...

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 Association (; DBU) is the governing body of football in Denmark. It is the organization of Danish football clubs and runs the professional Danish football leagues, alongside the men's and women's national teams. Based ...

(DBU) led to

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

'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 The 2009 Algarve Cup was the sixteenth edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational women's football tournament held annually in Portugal. It took place between 4 and 11 March 2009. It was won by Sweden who defeated holders the United States in a pe ...

in a 2–0 defeat by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In doing so, she became the first

naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

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, ...

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

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

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 Association football, football championship organised by UEFA for the ...

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, which Denmark ultimately lost to the hosts 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, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, an historic occasion for the national team as their first ever match in the Danish national stadium. After 16 years with the national team, Nadim announced on 23 June 2025 that she is retiring after the 2025 Euros. She was called up for the tournament after not having featured in a match for Denmark since December 2023.

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.

Controversies

In December 2021, Nadim received criticism in the media for describing

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

as a nation that helps people in need. Her positive description of the state was in conflict with the general consensus in the Danish population and the opinion formulated by the Danish FA on the suppression of

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

and poor conditions for

migrant worker A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work. Migrant workers ...

s in Qatar. Subsequently, Nadim denied having received money for her performance in Qatar, which turned out to be untrue 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.'' demonstrated that this statement was inaccurate.

Personal life

Nadim attended

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

Aarhus University Aarhus University (, abbreviated AU) is a public research university. Its main campus is located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Group, the Guild, and Ut ...

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

, and speaks eight languages. Afghan singer

Aryana Sayeed Aryana Sayeed (Pashto/Dari: , born 1985) is an Afghan pop singer and women rights activist. She sings mostly in Persian but also has many songs in Pashto. Sayeed also had hosting roles in musical television shows for the 1TV and has served as a ...

is her aunt. In 2018, ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' ranked her Number 20 in their "Most Powerful Women in International Sports" list. In 2024,

Corriere della Sera (; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...

included her in its "Women of the year" list. Her mother, Hamida Nadim, was killed in a motor vehicle accident 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. On August 9, 2024, Nadim married her long-term partner Idrees in Istanbul, Türkiye. Nadim's aunt Aryana Sayeed performed at the wedding. According to Nadim's sister, the couple had met when they both resided in Viby near Aarhus.

Endorsements

Nadia signed a representation contract with

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

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 a line of basketball and sportswear shoes produced by Nike, Inc. Related apparel and accessories are marketed under Jordan Brand. The first Air Jordan shoe was produced for basketball player Michael Jordan during his time with t ...

as well as Nike's collaborations with Martine Rose. Besides her work with Nike, Nadia is also known for her work with

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

and

Hugo Boss Hugo Boss AG (stylized in all caps) is a designer fashion company headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, Fashion accessory, accessories, footwear, and Leather, leather goods. Hugo Boss is one of the ...

. 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, Inc. (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 Lagard� ...

. In 2023, Nadia entered a collaboration with H&M along with

Zlatan Ibrahimovic Zlatan ( sr-Cyrl, Златан) is a male given name of Slavic origin meaning ''Golden''. The name is common amongst all South Slavic countries, namely in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, North Macedonia and Serbia. The name is found in ...

, to be the face of H&M's sports section called H&M Move

Career statistics

Goals

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 ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Manchester City *

FA WSL The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

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

Division 1 Féminine Division may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting of 10,000 to ...

Racing Louisville FC *

NWSL Challenge Cup The NWSL Challenge Cup is an annual supercup competition organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), a division 1 women's league in the United States soccer league system. The current (2025) cup holder is the Washington Spirit, who ...

runners-up:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

* All-time highest goal scorer Denmark *

UEFA Women's Euro The UEFA European Women's Championship, also called the UEFA Women's Euro, held every four years and one year after the men's UEFA European Championship first held in 1984, is the main competition in women's association football between nationa ...

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 (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

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

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, 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, an ...

, her contribution to the Organization's

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

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

at an international scale, among others.

References

;Match reports

External links

* * * {{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 Gotham FC players Portland Thorns FC players Manchester City W.F.C. players Paris Saint-Germain FC (women) players Racing Louisville FC players Danish Women's League players National Women's Soccer League players Women's Super League players Première Ligue 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 Women's Century Club UEFA Women's Euro 2022 players UEFA Women's Euro 2017 players Danish association football commentators Aarhus University alumni 21st-century Danish physicians Danish women physicians 21st-century Danish sportswomen