Rising Syrian soccer star now waiting tables in Iraq
For a while, it seemed Nosheen Hanaan's dream was coming true: The budding star qualified to be goalie on Syria's national soccer team at the age of 18 after earning a reputation for his fierce blocking on al-Hurriya, a league team from the northern city of Aleppo. But that dream crumbled as Syria descended into war. Today, […]For a while, it seemed Nosheen Hanaan's dream was coming true: The budding star qualified to be goalie on Syria's national soccer team at the age of 18 after earning a reputation for his fierce blocking on al-Hurriya, a league team from the northern city of Aleppo. But that dream crumbled as Syria descended into war. Today, 23-year-old Hanaan is a refugee and works as a waiter in a popular hotel restaurant in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil. The war, now in its fifth year, has wrecked almost every aspect of life in Syria -- and sports and beloved soccer have not been spared.
