Homare Sawa

Homare Sawa ( _ja. 澤穂希, さわ ほまれ, born September 6, 1978 in Tokyo) is a female football player from Japan.

Long considered Japan's finest female footballer, she made her debut in Japan's highest domestic league at age 12. On December 6, 1993, at age 15, she made her Japanese international debut, scoring four goals in her first ever match, a win against the Philippines. She has subsequently remained a fixture for the Japanese national team, participating in the last four FIFA Women's World Cups and the 1996, 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympic Games on her way to a Japanese record 130 caps, and a Japanese female-best 65 international goals.

With the birth of the Women's United Soccer Association in 2001, she found herself playing in the highest-level professional women's league in the United States, for the Atlanta Beat. She scored the first goal in club 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 5'5" (164 cm) tall and 121 lbs. (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.

Following the WUSA's demise in 2003, she returned to Japan, where she has been playing with powerhouse NTV Beleza. In 2004 she was named Women's Player of the Year for the Asian Football Confederation.

On September 24, 2008, Homare was selected by the Washington Freedom in the first round of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league initial International Player Draft. The WPS is scheduled to begin play in April 2009.

External links

* [http://www.fifa.com/womenworldcup/playertowatch/newsid=123884.html#player+watch+homare+sawa FIFA 2007 Women's World Cup bio page]
* [http://www.jfa.or.jp/daihyo/daihyo/games/eng/07_squad/women/07_sawa_homare.html Japan Women's Football Association English language bio page]
* [http://www.womensprosoccer.com/newsitem_ektid5106.aspx WPS Press Release]