Homare Sawa

Nippon TV Beleza

In 1991, Sawa was promoted to Yomiuri Beleza (later Nippon TV Beleza) from her youth team by manager Kazuhiko Takemoto. She made her debut in L.League, Japan's highest domestic league, at the age of 12. She played as a forward and appeared in 136 league matches, scoring 79 goals. She was named to the Best Eleven five times between 1993 and 1998. In 1999, NTV Beleza cancelled Sawa's contract, and she left to play football in the United States.

Atlanta Beat

With the launch of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) in 2001, Sawa found herself playing in the highest-level professional women's league in the United States, for the Atlanta Beat. With Asian compatriot Sun Wen in the team, she scored the first goal in the club's history, and was a centerpiece of the Beat's three seasons in the league, helping them into the playoffs each year. Despite her diminutive stature at 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) tall and 121 pounds (55 kg), she held her own with the mostly larger and more physical players, and was regularly among the team and league leaders in fouls taken.

Nippon TV Beleza

Following the WUSA's demise in 2003, Sawa returned to Japan, where she played with powerhouse Nippon TV Beleza. In 2004, she was named Women's Player of the Year for the Asian Football Confederation. She played the club until 2008. The club won L.League championship for four years in a row (2005–2008). She also was selected L.League MVP awards in 2006 and…

On 6 December 1993, at age 15, Sawa made her Japanese international debut, scoring four goals in her first ever match, a win against the Philippines. Sawa debuted in her first Women's World Cup tournament in 1995, making her first start at 16 years old against Germany. On 12 July 2003, Sawa scored the tie-winning goal against Mexico in 2003 Women's World Cup qualification play-offs to secure Japan's participation in the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup. Sawa played in all of Japan's matches at the 2004 Olympics, leading them to the knockout round of a major international tournament for the first time in Japan's history. Sawa scored a hat trick in a 2011 World Cup group stage match against Mexico, becoming the then-oldest player in World Cup history to score a hat trick. Sawa led the Japanese national team as captain to a world championship victory at the 2011 World Cup . After a 2–2 tie in front of a sellout crowd in Frankfurt, Germany (with one goal by Sawa in the 117th minute), Japan won the penalty shootout 3–1, defeating the United States to win their first ever World Cup. Sawa was awarded the Golden Boot for being the tournament's leading scorer with five goals and the Golden Ball for being the tournament's MVP. On 9 January 2012, Sawa was awarded the FIFA Women's World Player of the Year in Zurich, Switzerland. She broke Marta's streak of 5 consecutive FIFA Women's World Player of the Year awards, and also became the first Asian person regardless of gender to receive a…

Club

As of 11 November 2012

International

Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Sawa goal.

Matches and goals scored at World Cup and Olympic tournaments

Sawa has competed in six FIFA Women's World Cups (Sweden 1995, USA 1999, USA 2003, China 2007, Germany 2011, and Canada 2015); she and Brazil's Formiga, who competed at the same Women's World Cups, are the only players of either sex to appear in six World Cup final tournaments. Sawa has also represented Japan in four Olympics: Atlanta 1996, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012. In all, she played 41 matches and scored 11 goals at those ten global tournaments. Sawa was a member of the Japanese teams that won the 2011 Women's World Cup, and were runners-up at the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2015 Women's World Cup.

Sawa was born in Fuchū, Tokyo on 6 September 1978. She began playing football at the age of six. While watching her older brother train, she was invited by his coach to join the boys' team.