BRICK, N.J. — Nadia Nadim did not know soccer was for her until she was about 12. This was after her father had been executed by the Taliban, after she and her mother and her sisters had fled their native Afghanistan, after the trip through the dark in the smuggler’s truck.

“I got really passionate about it when we lived in this refugee camp in Denmark,” Nadim said after a practice last week, recounting her path to international and professional soccer as matter-of-factly as a young American might discuss her high school team. “There was this soccer club beside us. We had Danish lessons from 9 to 1, and then all this time off.”

She added: “That was the first time I saw girls and ladies playing soccer. And I was like, ‘Wow, you can also do that.’ ”

Nadim’s introduction to the game, and the opportunities it would present her, was just beginning. She went on to play for Denmark’s national team, and last summer she joined Sky Blue F.C. in the National Women’s Soccer League, where she became an instant sensation by scoring seven goals in six games.