Nadia Nadim

Nadia Nadim (born 2 January 1988) is a professional footballer and physician who plays as a striker for AC Milan.

Born in Afghanistan, she plays for AC Milan and represents the Denmark national team at international level.

Nadim played for B52 Aalborg, Team Viborg from 2005 to 2006 and IK Skovbakken from 2006 to 2012, before moving to Fortuna Hjørring 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.

Under Danish nationality law Nadim could not apply for citizenship until turning 18 years old in 2006.

When citizenship was eventually granted in 2008, FIFA eligibility rules 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 (DBU) led to FIFA'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 in a 2–0 defeat by the United States.

In doing so, she became the first naturalised 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 Kenneth Heiner-Møller's Denmark squad for UEFA European Championship 2013.

Nadim joined NWSL club Sky Blue FC 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.

On 14 January 2016, Nadim was traded to Portland Thorns FC.

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.

Nadim is considered the most influential and greatest Afghan female footballer of all time, particularly because she won leagues in two countries, the USA league title (NWSL Championship) in 2017 with the Portland Thorns and the French league title in the 2020–21 season with Paris Saint-Germain.

Nadia was born in Herat and raised for the first part of her childhood in Afghanistan in a wealthy family.

When Nadim was 9 years old, her father, an Afghan National Army (ANA) general, was executed by the Taliban.

A couple of years later, her family –consisting of Nadim, her mother and her four sisters– fled to Denmark.

Shortly after arriving in Denmark, when 12 years old, she tried playing football for the first time and began playing at the small local club GUG in Aalborg.

Her senior career began at B52 Aalborg and Team Viborg.

In the 2017 season, she helped the team to a second-place finish in the league and victory in the NWSL Championship game.

On 28 September 2017, Nadim signed for FA Women's Super League side Manchester City 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.

On 3 January 2019, Nadim signed for Paris Saint-Germain.

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.

On 9 June 2021, Nadim signed with Racing Louisville FC, 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 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.

On 27 January 2024, Nadim signed with AC Milan for the rest of the 2023–24 season.