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.

Hikaru Naomoto
猶本 光
Naomoto with SC Freiburg in 2019
Personal information
Date of birth (1994-03-03) 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 Apps (Gls)
2007–2011 Fukuoka J. Anclas 26 (0)
2012–2018 Urawa Reds 110 (9)
2018–2020 SC Freiburg 23 (0)
2020– Urawa Reds 56 (16)
International career
2010 Japan U-17 6 (2)
2012 Japan U-20 6 (2)
2014– Japan 38 (4)
Medal record
*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)

Club career edit

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 edit

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 edit

International edit

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 edit

Japan

Individual edit

References edit

  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)

External links edit