Hanifah Kyaw

Hanifah Kyaw
Sport Football Team Ariddia Position Midfield / Captain Number 3

A football player who competed in the World Cup as part of the team from the People’s Democratic Social Republic of Ariddia.

Status: retired
First appearance: World Cup 27
Last appearance: World Cup 32
Caps: 125
Goals: 113

Kyaw has been described as the team’s “child prodigy”. She is the youngest person ever to have played for the Rouge-et-Noirs, joining at just sixteen years of age. Scoring two goals during her first ever game, she instantly attracted the attention of fans, and still holds an average of almost one goal per match.

Kyaw was known as a lively, enthusiastic young woman. She has long dark hair, mostly Oriental features, and dark yellowish skin bordering on a brownish hue. She was the unofficial spokeswoman of the team, and seemed perpetually optimistic and cheerful. Domestically, she played for Kelsey, in Andossa Se Mitrin Vega.

At the age of 23, she married fellow player Aush Song, her team mate both in Kelsey and on the national team. Just prior to the start of World Cup 29, she announced that she was five weeks pregnant, and would therefore only be able to play the first few qualifying matches. The first of her three children (all boys), Nasir, was born eight months later. (Her other two sons are named Eus and Kwei).

She subsequently returned to the world stage, and was made captain in time for World Cup 30. She was the sixth person to have captained the national team, and the second woman to do so, following Sandrine Leduc.

Her very last international match was the final of World Cup 32, which the Rouge-et-Noirs won, becoming World Champions for the first time ever. Kyaw scored the second of her team's two goals in their 2-1 victory over Jeruselem. Content to retire from football, having achieved the ultimate goal of her career, she received the Order of Merit of the Social Republic for services in the field of sport, along with her team mates, and (also along with her team mates) was awarded an honourary degree in physical education and sports from the University of Rêvane.

Kyaw also played in the national all-female team and in the Women's World Cup.

She is a self-confessed fan of the Ariddian television series Les Schloumpf (The Snurfs), and, like many Ariddians, of Fr. Vasily the Heavily-Accented of The Archregimancy.

Kyaw is well known abroad, to the point that she has her own cartoon double on the West Ariddian satirical programme Westville News. She has said that she is "rather excited" at appearing in a cartoon programme - even one that mocks her.

She now works in a library.