Hikaru Naomoto

Hikaru Naomoto
猶本光
	Naomoto with SC Freiburg in 2019
Personal information
Date of birth	March 3, 1994 (age 30)
Place of birth	Ogori, Fukuoka, Japan
Height	1.58 m (5 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Urawa Reds
Number	8
Senior career*
Years	Team
2007–2011	Fukuoka J. Anclas
2012–2018	Urawa Reds
2018–2020	SC Freiburg
2020–	Urawa Reds
International career‡
2010	Japan U-17
2012	Japan U-20
2014–	Japan
Medal record
Urawa Reds
Representing Japan
AFC Women's Asian Cup
Asian Games
FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup
AFC U-19 Women's Championship
FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup
AFC U-16 Women's Championship
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14:19, 26 October 2023 (UTC); ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 14:19, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

Hikaru Naomoto (猶本光, Naomoto Hikaru, born March 3, 1994) is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for WE League club Urawa Reds and the Japan women's national team.

Club career

Naomoto was born in Ogori on March 3, 1994. In 2007, she joined her local club Fukuoka J. Anclas. After graduating from high school, she joined Urawa Reds in 2012. She was selected Best Eleven in 2014 season.

National team career

Naomoto played for the Japan U-17 team at 2010 U-17 World Cup where Japan won 2nd place and for the U-20 team at 2012 U-20 World Cup, where Japan won 3rd place.^[1] On May 8, 2014, she debuted for the Japan national team against New Zealand. She was a member of Japan's 2014 Asian Cup and 2014 Asian Games squads. Japan won the championship at Asian Cup and 2nd place at Asian Games. In 2018, she played at 2018 Asian Cup and Japan won their second consecutive title. She played 18 games for Japan.

On 13 June 2023, she was included in the 23-player squad for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.^[2]

On July 26, she scored the opening goal in the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Group C Round 2 match against Costa Rica and contributed to the victory, and was named VISA Player of the Match.^[3]^[4]

Career statistics

International

As of match played 26 October 2023^[5]

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National Team	Year	Apps	Goals
Japan	2014	6	0
	2015	2	0
	2016	0	0
	2017	7	0
	2018	3	0
	2019	2	0
	2020	0	0
	2021	1	0
	2022	10	2
	2023	7	2
Total		38	4

Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Noamoto goal.

List of international goals scored by Hikaru Noamoto
No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	21 January 2022	Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Pune, India	Myanmar	3–0	5–0	2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup
2	24 June 2022	Sport Center FAS, Stara Pazova, Serbia	Serbia	2–0	5–0	Friendly
3	26 July 2023	Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, New Zealand	Costa Rica	1–0	2–0	2023 FIFA Women's World Cup
4	26 October 2023	Lokomotiv Stadium, Tashkent, Uzbekistan	India	7–0	7–0	2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Honours

Japan

AFC Women's Asian Cup: 2014, 2018

Individual

Nadeshiko League Best XI: 2014
WE League Valuable Player Award: 2021–22, 2022–23
WE League Best XI: 2022–23
2023 FIFA Women's World Cup VISA Player of the Match: against Costa Rica

References

^ FIFA
^ "Iwabuchi left out of Japan's World Cup squad". BBC Sport. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
^ "Two goals in 2 minutes help Japan beat Costa Rica 2-0 at Women's World Cup". AP News. July 26, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
^ "Visa Player of the Match: Hikaru Naomoto". FIFA. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
^ List of match in 2014, 2015 Archived 2018-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, 2017 Archived 2019-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, 2018, 2019 at Japan Football Association (in Japanese)

External links

Hikaru Naomoto – FIFA competition record (archived)
Hikaru Naomoto at Soccerway
Hikaru Naomoto at WorldFootball.net
Japan Football Association
Profile

This biographical article related to women's association football in Japan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] FIFA

[2] "Iwabuchi left out of Japan's World Cup squad". BBC Sport. Retrieved June 20, 2023.

[3] "Two goals in 2 minutes help Japan beat Costa Rica 2-0 at Women's World Cup". AP News. July 26, 2023. Retrieved July 26, 2023.

[4] "Visa Player of the Match: Hikaru Naomoto". FIFA. Retrieved July 31, 2023.

[5] List of match in 2014, 2015 Archived 2018-08-11 at the Wayback Machine, 2017 Archived 2019-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, 2018, 2019 at Japan Football Association (in Japanese)

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