Meghan 1 Harry 0 in football shoot-out at refugee camp

The Duchess of Sussex was left with bragging rights when she scored a penalty and her husband’s shot was saved when they joined Syrian children at a refugee camp.

Meghan looked triumphant and threw her hands in the air after her right-footed strike beat a girl in goal when the couple visited a camp in Jordan, home to tens of thousands of displaced Syrians.

The couple have begun a two-day visit to learn more about humanitarian efforts by the Jordanian authorities and a range of agencies supporting the health and wellbeing of Syrians and Palestinians who have sought sanctuary in Jordan over the decades.

They travelled north of the capital, Amman, to the sprawling Za’atari Refugee Camp, where families live in semi-permanent homes with a few shops available.

Harry and Meghan toured a youth centre run by the social development organisation Questscope, which provides a number of activities from art and photography classes to music and sport, to engage the youngsters and help alleviate any mental health issues.

When they joined a group of young girls in an outdoor football class, a little girl came up to the duchess, who crouched down to speak to her through an interpreter asking her age and was told she was seven-years-old.

A member of Questscope staff said to the little girl, “You know Meghan?” but she promptly walked off and the duchess said with a smile: “So sweet, so confident – that’s what you’re instilling.”

Meghan seemed eager to give the football drills a go and tried passing the ball before she was joined by Harry for shooting practice, where she triumphed.

The couple visited a number of classrooms, watching teenage girls playing traditional Arabic instruments and in another space, more musicians performed with violins and guitars.

Conversations were conducted through an interpreter but when Harry asked the violinists if made friends through the lessons, 15-year-old Siham, a refugee who arrived in the country aged two, said “yes we’re friends” in perfect English and impressed the Sussexes by saying she was a black belt in the martial art taekwondo.

Jordan has received wave after wave of refugees beginning with Palestinians more than 80 years ago, who now number around 2.5 million, and Syrians who fled conflict in their country until recently ruled by President Bashar al-Assad.

The latest wave of displaced people flowed into the country following the Israeli government’s Gaza war against Hamas, which followed Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians during the October 7 attacks.