Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Tokyo: Japan star Homare Sawa, the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year and an Asian Football Confederation Hall of Fame inductee, has announced her retirement from football.
The news, released by her manager, brings an end to a glittering career for the talented 37-year-old, who scored four times on her international debut in 1993 - a win against the Philippines - when she was 15.
The attacking midfielder was a seasoned veteran of the Nadeshiko team and was the leading goal-scorer and player of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany where Japan beat the USA on penalties to finish as champions.
A few months later, she crowned this achievement by being named FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year.
The INAC Kobe Leonessa favourite appeared at a FIFA Women’s World Cup for a record sixth time this summer where she played a key role in the Japan squad that lost to the USA in the final.
Sawa, who appeared 205 times for her country and scored 83 goals, had previously ruled out playing at next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. It would have been a fifth Summer Games appearance for the London 2012 silver medalist.
Having begun her path to stardom with Japanese side Yomiuri Beleza, she moved to the United States in 1999, playing for the Denver Diamonds and Atlanta Beat for a total of four years.
In 2004, Sawa returned to Beleza, where she scored 47 times in 85 games. She spent another two years in the United States, this time with the Washington Freedom in 2009 and 2010 before joining INAC ahead of the 2011 season.
Photo: AFP