Plane crash victim named Pakistan’s Best Woman Footballer

KARACHI - A 19-year-old girl from Karachi, who was one of the victims of last month’s plane crash on the outskirts of Islamabad, was Tuesday posthumously named Pakistan’s Best Woman Footballer of the year.

Known as the “Maradona of Pakistan women’s football” among her peers, Misha Dawood lost her life along with over 150 others when an Airblue Airbus crashed in the Margalla Hills July 28.

Misha was going to Islamabad from Karachi to join her teammates to participate in a domestic football tournament.

Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) President Faisal Saleh Hayat announced the National Women’s Championship will institute a special ‘Misha Dawood Trophy’ for the best footballer of the event in her memory.

“It will be known as the ‘Misha Dawood Trophy’ from now onwards in the annual National Women’s Championship,” said the PFF chief.

“It’s difficult to think that Misha is no more in the playing arena and it is a big disappointment for her colleagues and women football family,” he added.

Misha, born August 21, 1990 in Lahore, rose to prominence two years ago when she scored a hat-trick against Sindh in the inaugural National Women’s Football Club Championship at the Colony Sports Stadium at Malir Town in Karachi.

A second-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, Misha was an emerging footballer.

“She was probably one of the most brilliant humans I’ve known ever known. She knew exactly how to make you laugh no matter what. That was the best thing about her,” said Mariam Laghari, a club-mate of Misha.