Sawa Homare

Sawa Homare, (born September 6, 1978, Tokyo, Japan), Japanese football (soccer) player who led Japan to victory in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.

Sawa’s brother taught her the basics of football. By the time she was 12, she was playing in Japan’s first division, and at 15 she had an immediate impact on the national team, scoring four goals in a match against the Philippines. Despite her small stature—she stood just 5 feet 4 inches (1.64 metres) tall—Sawa was an aggressive midfield player. Her first club in Japan was Yomiuri Beleza, where she played for seven years and scored 79 goals in 136 matches. She moved to the United States and in 2001 joined the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) Atlanta Beat, scoring the franchise’s first goal. When the WUSA folded in 2003, she returned to Japan and played for NTV Beleza, scoring 40 goals in 64 appearances. The advent of the Women’s Professional Soccer league in 2008 sent her back to the United States, and she played for the Washington Freedom until the team relocated to Florida in 2010. She subsequently joined INAC Kobe Leonessa in Japan, where she played until she retired from domestic football in December 2015.

In international play, Sawa competed in her first World Cup in 1995, with Japan losing in the quarterfinals. In the next three tournaments, Japan failed to make it out of group play. After winning the gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games, Japan entered the 2011 World Cup ranked fourth. During the tournament, Sawa scored five goals, most notably the tying goal in overtime during the finals against the highly favoured United States. Japan prevailed in the ensuing shoot-out to win Asia’s first major honour in the sport. As the tournament’s outstanding player and top scorer, Sawa was awarded the Golden Ball and Golden Boot, respectively. She later was named FIFA’s 2011 Player of the Year. She briefly left international football after helping Japan win a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games but returned in time to guide the national team to a victory at the 2014 Women’s Asian Cup. Sawa retired after helping Japan reach the final of the 2015 Women’s World Cup (where the team lost to the United States), which was the record-tying sixth time she had played in that tournament. She ended her international career with 205 appearances and 83 goals, both of which were Japanese records.