Last spring, Isra Khan ’26 represented Team Pakistan in the women’s soccer Olympic qualifiers. As a long-time soccer player and member of the Dickinson women’s soccer team, Khan was honored to play for the team again, this time in Pakistan. 

The previous time, Khan was only able to attend the tournament in Paris. This time, however, she traveled to Pakistan for camp with her teammates in June, before their “friendly” (scrimmage). Accompanied by her mom, Khan participated in two daily practices, the first at 5 or 6 a.m. and the second around 4 or 5 p.m. She describes her schedule as very routine: team breakfast, practice, team lunch, meetings, second practice, dinner, sleep and repeat. 

Khan admits that the camps were a lot on her body. The intense heat and humidity was also a challenge, but she had fun and cried at the end of her time in Pakistan as she reflected on her experience. 

“We did camp for three weeks, and then for the last week we got to travel to Singapore to play a friendly against the Singapore National Team, which was a lot of fun,” said Khan. 

Pakistan lost to Singapore 1-0 by “a late goal that was scored off of a corner.” Khan describes the mood in the locker room post game as emotional.The team is currently unsure when they will be together again, which prompted a lot of feelings and memories to be shared among the players.

Khan explained this “surreal” stand out memory saying, “Everyone was sharing how much the team meant to each other … There’s girls from all different countries, sharing how much we all grew together in the past month, how much playing together meant for everyone, and how much we feel we’ve grown as a team and developed too. It was a very sweet, sentimental moment.”

Outside of soccer, Khan got to experience Pakistan for the first time, since her previous visit was when she was a year old. 

“I got to experience Pakistan — getting to see the culture of the country through food or the holiday Eid, which we had a day off for. I had never experienced anything like it before. It made me feel more in tune with my culture.” said Khan. 

Even after their loss, Khan is positive about the future of Team Pakistan. She is hoping to play again for team Pakistan in the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) tournament in Saudi Arabia soon. 

Khan ended by saying, “Hopefully I’ll know at some point this week if I’m able to travel and join the team. Otherwise, I’ll be their biggest fan.”