Rukhsar reveals Euro volunteering experience.

KARACHI -- While the world witnessed England women's national football team finally take the Euro 2022 trophy 'home' in the most legendary way, defeating Germany 2-1 in extra time, there was a Pakistani women footballer present in the country, Rukhsar Rashid, who was soaking it all in during the marquee event.

Rukhsar, a former player who had to give up on her dream to play for the country due to the injury, feels that her stint as a volunteer at Euro 2022 has paved the way for her to be in a position of acquiring the UEFA License C. She feels women's Euros was just the event to embark on this journey.

Rukhsar has been playing and coaching at Pakistan's first women's football club Diya FC since she was very young, however, this year she felt she needed to put her savings into here passion.

She hopes her attendance at women's Euros will open doors for others in the future to experience professional management and football in mega events like women's Euros.

"Just getting here was very tough for me. Bearing all of my expenses I had to put in all my savings into this, because I wanted to move forward and staying back in Pakistan is not the answer. Women's Euros was just that opportunity," Rukhsar told The Express Tribune, right after the women's Euros ended, and so did her volunteering duty at the event.

"I really wanted to be here and this was something I had been planning for a very long time. I bore all the expenses, basically all of my saving because this was necessary. I had applied for the volunteering job months ago and I got selected on the basis of my resume.

She took a brave risk as football is her calling and while pursuing her life-long journey to learn and expand on her skills, she said that her hope is to bring everything she learns from this experience back to Pakistan, along with coach's training at the Manchester International Football Academy and also her training at Tiki Taka Football Academy.

She said that she began looking for these opportunities during the pandemic, which had made an already gloomy women's football situation in Pakistan even worse.

Pakistan women's team last played an international event in 2014 and after eight years, they will be now be playing in September in Nepal at the Saff Championship.

Meanwhile, there had not been any domestic league for the women besides the national championship.

"There was a lot of uncertainty and I really wanted to do something creative, something that can help me further my...