{"id":24395,"date":"2025-03-05T18:29:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/yuki-nagasato-japanese-world-cup-winner-and-trailblazer-announces-retirement\/"},"modified":"2025-03-05T18:29:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:29:33","slug":"yuki-nagasato-japanese-world-cup-winner-and-trailblazer-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/yuki-nagasato-japanese-world-cup-winner-and-trailblazer-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Yuki Nagasato: Japanese World Cup-winner and trailblazer announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Japanese World Cup-winner and trailblazer Yuki Nagasato, who made history by playing for a senior men’s team in 2020, has announced her retirement from football.<\/b><\/p>\n

The 37-year-old former Chelsea striker played 132 times for her country during a 24-year professional career which saw her lift the World Cup with Japan in 2011.<\/p>\n

In 2020, she joined Japanese second-tier side Hayabusa Eleven on loan, becoming the first woman to play for a men’s side in her country.<\/p>\n

“For 30 years, ever since I first kicked a ball, football has been my life. I’ve chased the game, challenged myself and grown through every victory and defeat,” Nagasato said on Instagram.<\/p>\n

“The journey wasn’t always easy but every moment had meaning. Retiring wasn’t an easy decision but I’m excited for what’s next.”<\/p>\n

Nagasato said her decision to join a men’s side in 2020 was inspired by former USA player Megan Rapinoe’s fight for equality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I thought I could show that women can also play in a men’s team,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I want to help create a community where there is no boundary regarding gender or race.”<\/p>\n

In 2011, Nagasato came on as a substitute in the World Cup final as Japan beat the United States on penalties following a 2-2 draw after extra time.<\/p>\n

Nagasato’s club career saw her win the Champions League with German side Turbine Potsdam in 2010 before joining Chelsea in 2013.<\/p>\n

She played 18 times for the Blues, scoring five goals, before further spells in Germany, the USA and Australia.<\/p>\n

Nagasato, who also won an Olympic silver medal at the 2012 London Games, scored 58 goals for Japan and retires as her country’s second-highest goalscorer of all time, behind Homare Sawa’s 83.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Japanese World Cup-winner and trailblazer Yuki Nagasato, who made history by playing for a senior men’s team in 2020, has announced her retirement from football. The 37-year-old former Chelsea striker played 132 times for her country during a 24-year professional career which saw her lift the World Cup with Japan in 2011. In 2020, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24397,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395\/revisions\/24397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}