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Homare Sawa (澤 穂希, Sawa Homare, born 6 September 1978) is a Japanese former professional footballer who played as a forward or a midfielder. Regarded by many as one of the greatest female footballers of all time and the greatest Asian female footballer of all time, Sawa had a professional club career spanning 24 seasons, mostly with Nippon TV Beleza and INAC Kobe Leonessa. She also spent 22 years with the Japan national team, most notably captaining them to a FIFA Women's World Cup win in 2011 and an Olympic silver medal finish in 2012.
Sawa made her club debut in 1991 at the age of 12, and went on to win five titles with Nippon TV Beleza between 1991 and 1999 before departing to the United States to play football in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA). She played for two WUSA clubs, the Atlanta Beat and the Denver Diamonds, before returning to the Japanese league in 2004. Sawa won another nine titles with Nippon TV Beleza in four years, but left the club again in 2008. That year, Japan reached their first Olympic medal match at the Summer Olympics, and Sawa was Japan's top scorer of the tournament.
In 2011, Sawa captained the Japan national team at the 2011 World Cup. In Germany, Japan advanced to their first final of a major international tournament, where Sawa scored Japan’s match-tying goal in extra time, allowing Japan to win the match on penalties. She finished the tournament with the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player and the Golden Boot as the tournament's top scorer. Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License - Full article |
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| Appearances, goals and cards for Sawa
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