JAPAN
Saki Kumagai
33| midfielder|150 caps |2 goals
Intro
Saki Kumagai was just twenty years old when she took the penalty kick that won Japan the 2011 World Cup. Now she is the only member of that team who will play for Japan in the 2024 Olympics. Kumagai is passionate about strengthening women's soccer in Japan, though she currently plays for AS Roma in Italy. She champions how far Japanese women have come during her lifetime. With a deep well of experience and an acute sense for tactics and positioning on the pitch, Kumagai can play midfielder or defender and is regarded as one of the best Asian female midfielders of all time. She claims that while she does not score the goals, she knows she can get the best out of her teammates. Japan enters the Olympics as the only team that beat champions Spain in the 2023 World Cup, placing them in a strong position to contend for Olympic gold this year.
International career
Kumagai began her international career at age 17, and she captained her team in the 2010 U-20 World Cup. Kumagai then played on the squad that won the 2011 World Cup and took silver at both the 2012 Summer Olympics and the 2015 World Cup. Manager Asako Takagura granted her the captain's armband in 2017, and the following year she led Japan to win the 2018 Asian Cup. Kumagai is the third-most capped women's player of all time in Japan. When she began her adult career with a World Cup win in 2011, the Japanese women's team was still treated like an amateur league. They received 10,000 yen, or 88 Euro, for each game they won. She has fought hard for greater World Cup prize money, and by 2023, what players could earn in six weeks of World Cup play was greater than many of their annual salaries in Japan. She says there is still a long way to go, but by 2023 "I was really able to focus solely on football."
Club career
Kumagai joined the Urawa Reds, a professional Japanese league, in 2009, just after graduating high school. She moved to the Bungdesliga club Frankfurt in Germany in 2011, then to Lyon in 2013. She remained at Lyon for eight seasons, where she scored their winning penalty in the 2016 UEFA Champions League final and earning Player of the Match for the game. She has said that Lyon is still deeply important to her and she would want to return someday. Yet in 2021, Kumagai moved to FC Bayern Munich for two seasons, then in 2023 she signed a three-year contract with AS Roma. There she is anticipated to play a key role in their roster, bringing defensive experience and expertise when needed but with the flexibility to be a midfielder and playmaker as well. While her goals and assist numbers are low, she is known for deadly passing accuracy and quick, decisive plays.
"I want to make sure we become role models for young girls who love football. For them to aspire to be women's football players is my biggest objective."
-Kumagai after Japan's 2011 World Cup win. At just 20 years old and with very little penalty kick experience, Kumagai took the winning penalty kick for Japan. She says the support of her teammates carried her through this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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