Lina Boussaha on French football's hijab ban, leaving PSG and finding the net at Al Nassr

At the age of 23, French-Algerian midfielder Lina Boussaha was ready to give up on her professional football career.

After playing her way from the youth ranks to the first team at Paris Saint-Germain, her hometown club, Boussaha spent two years struggling with a foot injury. While she was sidelined, she made the decision to start wearing the hijab.

Since 2016, the France Football Federation (FFF) has had a rule that prohibits Muslim women from wearing headscarves while competing, considering wearing the hijab to be a breach of Article 1, which states that no player should wear “any sign or clothing clearly showing political, philosophical, religious or union affiliation”.

Boussaha, who from age 16 played for France’s national team through various age groups and won the French Cup with PSG at 19, realised she no longer had a place on the football pitch in her home country.

Various rights groups and organisations have submitted a petition to the State Council to lift the FFF’s ban on the hijab, but three months ago the court ruled that the federation’s decision to enforce neutral clothing was appropriate.

Having sustained a foot fracture and struggling to find a club that would welcome her and her hijab, Boussaha was preparing to accept that she may never play professional football again. She began to work as a personal trainer, building a healthy list of clients, and was ready to move on.

But just when she was about to hang up her boots, she received a call from her agent that Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia were interested in signing her.

Boussaha was in Qatar at the time attending World Cup matches and enjoying a break. She did not know anything about Saudi football and had little knowledge of Al Nassr.

“I didn’t have any