'They left their homes and left everything behind': Afghanistan girls soccer team given asylum in Portugal

A charter flight carried frightened girls and their families from Afghanistan — to where they didn’t know

LISBON LIONESSES: In this photo provided to The Associated Press, members of the Afghanistan national girls soccer team are seen in Lisbon. Late Sunday night, almost three weeks after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the girls and their families landed in Lisbon after an international coalition came to their rescue. (AP Photo)

THE girls on Afghanistan’s national soccer team were anxious. For weeks, they had been moving around the country, waiting for word that they could leave.

One wants to be a doctor, another a movie producer, others engineers. All dream of growing up to be professional soccer players.