Yūki Nagasato

Yūki Nagasato (永里 優季, Nagasato Yūki; born 15 July 1987), known from 2012 to 2016 as Yūki Ōgimi (大儀見 優季, Ōgimi Yūki),^[2] is a Japanese former footballer who played as a striker. Nagasato is the first female footballer to play for the first-team of a Japanese men's club.

Yūki Nagasato
永里 優季

Nagasato with Frankfurt in 2016
Personal information
Date of birth	(1987-07-15) 15 July 1987 (age 38)
Place of birth	Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[1]
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2001–2009	Nippon TV Beleza	110	(69)
2010–2013	Turbine Potsdam	71	(48)
2013–2014	Chelsea	18	(5)
2015	Wolfsburg	9	(4)
2015–2017	Frankfurt	35	(8)
2017–2020	Chicago Red Stars	56	(13)
2018–2019	→ Brisbane Roar (loan)	11	(4)
2020	→ Hayabusa Eleven (loan)	4	(0)
2021	Racing Louisville	21	(2)
2022–2023	Chicago Red Stars	27	(5)
2024	Houston Dash	19	(3)
Total		381	(161)
International career
2004–2016	Japan	132	(58)
Medal record Nippon TV Beleza Winner Nadeshiko League 2001 Winner Nadeshiko League 2002 Winner Nadeshiko League 2005 Winner Nadeshiko League 2006 Winner Nadeshiko League 2007 Winner Nadeshiko League 2008 Runner-up Nadeshiko League 2003 Runner-up Nadeshiko League 2004 Runner-up Nadeshiko League 2009 Winner Nadeshiko League Cup 2007 Winner Empress's Cup 2004 Winner Empress's Cup 2005 Winner Empress's Cup 2007 Winner Empress's Cup 2008 Winner Empress's Cup 2009 Runner-up Empress's Cup 2002 Runner-up Empress's Cup 2003 Representing  Japan Olympic Games 2012 London Team FIFA Women's World Cup 2011 Germany 2015 Canada AFC Women's Asian Cup 2014 Vietnam 2008 Vietnam 2010 China Asian Games 2006 Doha Team
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nagasato represented Japan internationally between 2004 and 2016, scoring 58 goals in 132 appearances.^[3] She has won the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2011, and was part of the runners-up team in 2015.

Club career

Nagasato was born in Atsugi on 15 July 1987. In 2001, she was promoted to Nippon TV Beleza from her youth team. In the 2002 season, she debuted in L.League. She became one of the division's top scorers in 2006 season. She also won the league championship 6 times (2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

In 2010, Nagasato moved to Turbine Potsdam in Germany, where she won the Bundesliga's leading goal-scorer award. She also won the UEFA Champions League with that team. In 2013, she transferred to the English FA WSL club Chelsea.^[4]

She joined Wolfsburg in early 2015 to play in a stronger league for the 2015 World Cup.^[5] In August 2015, Nagasato joined UEFA Champions League 2015 winners Frankfurt.^[6]

On 24 May 2017 it was announced that she had signed with the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), she appeared in only 6 games in 2017 due to injury.^[7] In 2018 she was named Player of the Week for week 10 ^[8]

In October 2018, Nagasato signed with Brisbane Roar on loan for the 2018–19 W-League season.^[9]

On 10 September 2020, Nagasato made history by becoming the first woman to play for Hayabusa Eleven, a men's team in the Kanagawa Prefecture League; she joined on loan until prior to the beginning of the 2021 NWSL season.^[10]

On 26 October 2020, newly-formed club Racing Louisville FC announced Nagasato as one of their first signings for the 2021 National Women's Soccer League season.^[11]

On 11 January 2022, the Red Stars announced that Nagasato would be returning to Chicago.^[12]

On 12 January 2024, Nagasato signed with Houston Dash.^[13]

On 4 March 2025, Nagasato retired from professional football.^[14]

International career

In April 2004, Nagasato was selected Japan national team for 2004 Summer Olympics qualification. At this competition, on 22 April, she debuted against Thailand. She was also part of Japan's 2008 Summer Olympic team and 2007 World Cup.^[15][16] Nagasato was part of the Japan squad that won the 2011 World Cup. She played as a substitute in the final against the United States. The game went to penalties and Nagasato had her penalty saved by Hope Solo, but Japan still emerged victorious.^[17]

Since 2016, she wore the number 10 shirt for Japan, after Homare Sawa retired at 2016 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.^[18] After the tournament, new Japan's manager Asako Takakura gave the number 10 to Mizuho Sakaguchi and Nagasato wore the number 9.^[19]

Personal life

Nagasato's brother Genki is a professional footballer, and her younger sister Asano also played for Turbine Potsdam.

Nagasato married in July 2011^[20] and changed her registered name from Nagasato to Ōgimi before the 2012 Summer Olympics. Upon her divorce in 2016, she re-assumed her maiden name.

Career statistics

Club

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Nippon TV Beleza	2001	0	0			-		-
	2002	2	0			-		-		2	0
	2003	0	0	2	0	-		-		2	0
	2004	13	3			-		-		13	3
	2005	21	18	5	6	-		-		26	24
	2006	16	18	3	2	-		-		19	20
	2007	18	14	4	1	2	3	-		24	18
	2008	20	9	3	2	-		-		23	11
	2009	20	7	4	5	-		-		24	12
	Total	110	69	21	16	2	3	-		133	88
1. FFC Turbine Potsdam	2009–10	10	6	1	0	-		5	2	16	8
	2010–11	21	10	5	6	1	3	8	9	35	28
	2011–12	19	13	2	2			6	7	27	22
	2012–13	22	18	5	2			4	2	31	22
	Total	72	47	13	10	1	3	23	20	109	80
Chelsea	2013	5	0	0	0	0	0	-		5	0
	2014	13	5	3	1	4	1	-		20	7
	Total	18	5	3	1	4	1	-		25	7
Wolfsburg	2014–15	9	5	2	1	-		4	0	15	6
1. FFC Frankfurt	2015–16	16	5	2	3	-		5	1	23	9
	2015–16	19	3	3	1	-		0	0	22	4
	Total	35	8	5	4	-		5	1	45	13
Chicago Red Stars	2017	6	1	-		-		-		6	1
	2018	23	4	-		-		-		23	4
	Total	29	5	-		-		-		29	5
Brisbane Roar	2018-19	11	4	-		-		-		11	4
Chicago Red Stars	2019	24	8	-		-		-		24	8
	2020	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	2022	22	4	6	0	0	0	0	0	28	4
	2023	19	3	4	1	0	0	0	0	23	4
Racing Louisville	2021	21	2	4	0	1	1	0	0	26	3
Houston Dash	2024	19	3	-		0	0	0	0	19	3
Career total		389	163	60	34	8	8	32	21	489	226

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[21][22]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Japan	2004	1	0
	2005	9	6
	2006	13	9
	2007	12	4
	2008	17	9
	2009	3	0
	2010	3	1
	2011	17	3
	2012	16	9
	2013	12	6
	2014	9	5
	2015	13	3
	2016	7	3
	Total	132	58

List of international goals scored by Yūki Nagasato

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	21 May 2005	Tokyo, Japan	New Zealand	?–0	6–0	Friendly
2.				?–0
3.	26 May 2005	Russia	Russia	?–?	4–2
4.	28 May 2005		Russia	?–0	2–0
5.	23 July 2005	Tokyo, Japan	Australia	1–2	4–2
6.				3–2
7.	19 July 2006	Adelaide, Australia	Vietnam	5–0	5–0	2006 AFC Women's Asian Cup
8.	21 July 2006		Chinese Taipei	2–0	11–1
9.				3–0
10.				5–1
11.				8–1
12.				11–1
13.	30 July 2006		North Korea	2–3	2–3
15.	10 December 2006	Doha, Qatar	South Korea	3–0	3–1	2006 Asian Games
16.	28 July 2007	San Jose, United States	United States	1–4	1–4	Friendly
17.	4 August 2007	Hải Phòng, Vietnam	Vietnam	8–0	8–0	2008 Summer Olympics qualification
18.	12 August 2007	Tokyo, Japan	Thailand	2–0	5–0
19.	14 September 2007	Shanghai, China	Argentina	1–0	1–0	2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
20.	24 February 2008	Chongqing, China	China	3–0	3–0	2008 EAFF Women's Football Championship
21.	5 March 2008	Larnaca, Cyprus	Netherlands	1–0	3–1	2008 Cyprus Women's Cup
22.	29 May 2008	Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam	South Korea	1–0	1–3	2008 AFC Women's Asian Cup
23.	31 May 2008		Chinese Taipei	11–0	11–0
24.	2 June 2008		Australia	2–0	3–1
25.	8 June 2008		Australia	1–0	3–0
26.	24 July 2008	Kobe, Japan	Australia	2–0	3–0	Friendly
27.	29 July 2008	Tokyo, Japan	Argentina	2–0	2–0
28.	15 August 2008	Qinhuangdao, China	China	2–0	2–0	2008 Summer Olympics
29.	24 May 2010	Chengdu, China	North Korea	2–0	2–1	2010 AFC Women's Asian Cup
30.	4 March 2011	Lagos, Portugal	Finland	3–0	5–0	2011 Algarve Cup
31.	7 March 2011	Parchal, Portugal	Norway	1–0	1–0
32.	27 June 2011	Bochum, Germany	New Zealand	1–0	2–1	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
31.	29 February 2012	Faro, Portugal	Norway	1–1	2–1	2012 Algarve Cup
32.	7 March 2012		Germany	3–3	3–4
33.	5 April 2012	Kobe, Japan	Brazil	2–1	4–1	2012 Women's Kirin Challenge Cup
34.	18 June 2012	Halmstad, Sweden	United States	1–2	1–4	2012 Sweden Invitational
35.	20 June 2012	Gothenburg, Sweden	Sweden	1–0	1–0
36.	3 August 2012	Cardiff, Wales	Brazil	1–0	2–0	2012 Summer Olympics
37.	6 August 2012	London, England	France	1–0	2–1
38.	9 August 2012		United States	1–2	1–2
42.	11 March 2013	Parchal, Portugal	Denmark	2–0	2–0	2013 Algarve Cup
43.	13 March 2013	Faro, Portugal	China	1–0	1–0
44.	20 June 2013	Saga, Japan	New Zealand	1–?	1–1	Friendly
45.	29 June 2013	Munich, Germany	Germany	?–?	4–2
46.	27 July 2013	Seoul, South Korea	South Korea	1–2	1–2	2013 EAFF Women's East Asian Cup
47.	22 September 2013	Nagasaki, Japan	Nigeria	1–0	2–0	Friendly
48.	10 March 2014	Faro, Portugal	Sweden	2–1	2–1	2014 Algarve Cup
49.	14 May 2014	Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam	Australia	2–2	2–2	2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup
50.	16 May 2014		Vietnam	3–0	4–0
51.	25 October 2014	Edmonton, Canada	Canada	1–0	3–0	Friendly
52.	28 October 2014	Vancouver, Canada	Canada	2–1	3–2
53.	28 May 2015	Nagano, Japan	Italy	1–0	1–0
54.	16 June 2015	Winnipeg, Canada	Ecuador	1–0	1–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
55.	5 July 2015	Vancouver, Canada	United States	1–4	2–5
56.	29 February 2016	Osaka, Japan	Australia	1–2	1–3	2016 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
57.	7 March 2016		Vietnam	6–1	6–1
58.	2 June 2016	Commerce City, United States	United States	2–0	3–3	Friendly

Honours

Nippon TV Beleza

• L.League: 2002, 2005, 2008
• Empress's Cup: 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010
• Nadeshiko League Cup: 2007

1. FFC Turbine Potsdam

• Bundesliga: 2010, 2011
• UEFA Champions League: 2010

VfL Wolfsburg

• DFB Pokal: 2014–15

Japan

• FIFA Women's World Cup: 2011; runner-up: 2015
• East Asian Football Championship: 2008
• Summer Olympic Games runner-up: 2012
• AFC Women's Asian Cup: 2014

Individual

• L.League top-goalscorer: 2006
• L-League Best Eleven: 2005, 2006
• Bundesliga top-goalscorer: 2013

See also

• List of women's footballers with 100 or more international caps