DOHA (Ekstra Bladet): After a lot of speculation, Ekstra Bladet can now tell that the football player Nadia Nadim has not only become FIFA ambassador for Qatar, as she herself has written on social media, but has also been given another role in FIFA -regi.
She has become part of FIFA’s ‘Legends’, which includes players and coaches who in one way or another have achieved something extraordinary in their respective careers.
This is what Nadia Nadim tells Ekstra Bladet immediately before the World Cup draw starts in the large congress hall in Doha. Thus, she evokes the rumors that her role as World Cup ambassador should be an April Fool’s joke, which otherwise several have shot on all Friday.
She joins both roles with immediate effect, she confirms:
– I came to Qatar on March 30, and today I officially take up my new role, says Nadia Nadim to Ekstra Bladet.
For the World Cup draw, she has won a distinguished place in the first row among the legends, only a few rows behind national coach Kasper Hjulmand, DBU chairman Jesper Møller and DBU’s director, Jacob Jensen.
Throughout the day, several have distanced themselves from Nadia Nadim’s role for the World Cup in Qatar, as the regime in the desert state does not respect basic human rights. In addition, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from poor countries from Asia and Africa have worked under slave-like conditions to get the small but rocky country ready for the World Cup finals.
Even Nadim’s own union, Spillerforeningen, back home in Denmark distances itself from Nadim, while DBU’s position is that Nadia Nadim must do what she wants.
33-year-old Nadim has so far played 99 international matches for Denmark. She has been injured for a long time and the question is whether she, now with her new role, has also played her last international.