Sun Wen (footballer)

Sun Wen (zh-s|孙雯, born April 6, 1973 in Shanghai) is a retired well-known female Chinese football (soccer) player.

Sun appeared in the national squad at the age of 17 [http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/03/en/t/pl/65.html] . A strong striker with great skills and passing abilities, Sun won both the Golden Boot (which she shared with Sissi, of Brazil) and the Golden Ball for the 1999 Women's World Cup, and became the first woman to be nominated for the Asian Football Confederation player of the year award. Some regarded her as even superior to Mia Hamm, whom she has often been compared to. In 2002, she was voted FIFA's Woman Player of the Century, an award she shared with American Michelle Akers. Sun played for the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association from 2001 until the league's demise in 2003, and became an international relations student and a journalist in Fudan University. She returned to the Chinese women's team from a two-year retirement on December 15, 2005 [http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-12/16/content_504004.htm] . Due to injury reasons, Sun retired again after winning AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2006.