Danish footballer Nadia Nadim fled Afghanistan with her family at age 11, speaking to Vogue Scandinavia, she expands on the importance of second chances and a positive outlook on life
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.”