In a first, Pakistani footballer secures master’s degree from Real Madrid School

In this handout photograph, taken and released by Real Madrid Graduate School on July 2, 2024, Pakistan’s Imaad Khan gestures during the graduation ceremony at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid. Khan, 28, becomes the first Pakistani to secure a master’s degree in football coaching and management from the prestigious Real Madrid Graduate School. (Photo courtesy: Supplied/Imaad Khan)
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Updated 25 July 2024
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In a first, Pakistani footballer secures master’s degree from Real Madrid School

  • Imaad Khan postgraduates in football coaching and management from the prestigious institution in Spain
  • Khan has been a skilled soccer player and runs his own a sports club and football academy in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Imaad Khan made history this month when he became the first person from his country to secure a master’s degree in football coaching and management from the prestigious Real Madrid Graduate School.
Khan, a skilled football player himself since the age of ten, was on the national team in 2016 during Pakistan’s tour of Sri Lanka. He also runs a sports club and football academy in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
In 2022, he became the first Pakistani to enroll for a master’s degree in football coaching and management from the Real Madrid Graduate School.
“This is how graduation at Real Madrid looks like,” Khan wrote as caption on Instagram with a video of his graduation ceremony posted on Wednesday.
In the video, Khan can be seen attending his graduation ceremony at a football stadium in Spain as his name is called out.
Khan was accepted to the Real Madrid Graduate School in 2016 but could not enroll as he needed financial aid. He was later sponsored by the Bilquis and Abdul Razak Dawood (BARD) Foundation which helped him enroll in 2022.
“BARD Foundation proudly celebrates Imaad Khan’s historic achievement as the first Pakistani to earn a Master’s in Football Coaching and Management with distinction from the Real Madrid Graduate School,” BARD Foundation wrote on social media.

Real Madrid is one of the most popular and renowned football clubs in the world. Home to one of the most legendary and iconic football players, the club enjoys massive popularity in Pakistan, where cricket is considered the most popular sport.
Speaking to Arab News in 2022, Khan said he wanted to work with Pakistan’s young football talent.
“While I play for Pakistan football, I would like to work for under-18 and under-16,” he had said.


Hundreds of migrants, including Pakistanis, land in Greece after search operation at sea

Updated 19 December 2025
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Hundreds of migrants, including Pakistanis, land in Greece after search operation at sea

  • Rescued migrants were taken to a temporary facility on Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini
  • Greece has made deportations of rejected asylum seekers a priority under its migration policy

ATHENS: Greece’s Coast Guard rescued about 540 migrants from a fishing boat off ​Europe’s southernmost island of Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.

The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. They are all well and are being taken ‌to a ‌temporary facility on the nearby ‌island ⁠of ​Crete after ‌reaching the port of Agia Galini, a Coast Guard official said, adding most of the migrants were men from Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan.

In a separate incident on Thursday, the EU’s border agency Frontex rescued 65 men and five women from two ⁠migrant boats in distress off Gavdos, the Greek Coast Guard ‌said.

Greece was on the front ‍line of a 2015-16 ‍migration crisis when more than a million people ‍from the Middle East and Africa landed on its shores before moving on to other European countries, mainly Germany.

Flows have ebbed since then, but both Crete ​and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise ⁠in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and deadly accidents remain common along that route.

Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.

The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected asylum ‌seekers will be a priority.