is a Japanese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

club

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and the Japan women's national team. Nagano begun her senior career with Urawa Reds in 2014. She joined

WK league The WK League (Hangul: WK리그) is a semi-professional women's football league, run by the Korea Football Association (KFA) and the Korea Women's Football Federation (KWFF), which represents the sport's highest level in South Korea. The regular ...

club Hyundai Steel Red Angels in 2018. She then returned to Japan and play for Division 2 side Chifure AS Elfen Saitama before joining

Mynavi Sendai is a women's football club playing in Japan's football league, WE League. Its hometown is the city of Sendai. Kits Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors Stadium Their home stadium is Yurtec Stadium Sendai, in Izumi-ku, Sendai, although a few hom ...

for the inaugural

WE League The , officially the , also known as the for sponsorship reasons, is the top flight of women's association football in Japan, starting from the 2021–22 season. It is the first fully-professional women's soccer league in Japan. History On 3 J ...

season. In 2022, she went overseas to join NWSL club

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York ...

during the midseason. At the end of the season, she left the club to join

in the

. Nagano had represented Japan at every youth level and had won both the

FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The tournament is held in even-numbered ye ...

and FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup with her country. In 2017, she was named

Asian Young Footballer of the Year The Asian Young Footballer of the Year award, officially known as the AFC Youth Player of the Year award, is presented to the best young football player in Asia. It has been awarded by the Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Con ...

at the AFC Annual Awards. In 2018, she made her senior international debut for Japan in a friendly match. She has since represented Japan in the AFC Women's Asian Cup and the

EAFF E-1 Football Championship EAFF E-1 Football Championship, known as the East Asian Football Championship from 2003 to 2010, and the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 and 2015 editions, is a men's international football competition in East Asia for member nations of the Eas ...

Club career

Urawa Reds

In 2014, Nagano played for

Urawa Reds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

in Japan's top-division

Nadeshiko League The , commonly known as the , is a semi-professional women's association football Sports league, league in Japan. The Nadeshiko League consists of two divisions that correspond to the second and third levels of the Japanese association football ...

and helped the team win a league championship.

Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels

On 18 March 2018, Nagano signed a one-year contract with

Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels The Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women's Football Club is a South Korean women's football team based in Incheon Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, o ...

. On 23 April, she made her debut in a 0–0 draw with Gyeongju KHNP. On 1 June, she scored her first goal in a 7–1 home victory against

Changnyeong Changnyeong County (''Changnyeong-gun'' 창녕군) is a county in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. In the early Three Kingdoms period, Changnyeong was the seat of Bihwa Gaya, a member of the Gaya confederacy which was later conquered by S ...

Chifure AS Elfen Saitama

In January 2019, Nagano left South Korea and returned to her native Japan to play for Division 2 club Chifure AS Elfen Saitama. She stated that her motivation to join was because of her great respect for the coach of the team,

Hiroshi Yoshida was a 20th-century Japanese painter and woodblock printmaker. He is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the shin-hanga style, and is noted especially for his excellent landscape prints. Yoshida travelled widely, and was particularly known ...

Mynavi Sendai

In January 2021, Nagano joined Mynavi Sendai.

North Carolina Courage

In July 2022, Nagano confirmed she would be joining the

of the NWSL. She scored her first goal for the Courage on 20 August in a 4-0 victory over

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

Liverpool FC

In January 2023, Nagano joined Liverpool FC. She was due to complete her debut on 22 January 2023 in a league match against Chelsea before the match was abandoned after 6 minutes of play.She made her official competitive debut in a 1-0 loss against West Ham United in the FA WSL Cup quarterfinals on 25 January 2023.

International career

Youth

In 2016, Nagano competed at the All Japan Youth (U-15) Women's Championship. She was part of the under-16 team that won the

2013 AFC U-16 Women's Championship The 2013 AFC U-16 Women's Championship was the 5th edition of the tournament. The tournament was held from 26 September to 6 October 2013. The tournament was played in Nanjing, China, just as the 2011 edition. The top three teams qualify for the ...

in China and of the under-17 team that won the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Costa Rica. She captained Japan to the final of the

2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tourna ...

in Jordan, where they were defeated by North Korea on penalty kicks, and won the Golden Ball award as the tournament's top scorer. In June 2018, Nagano was called up to the senior team for the first time for a friendly match against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In August 2018, Nagano was part of Japan's victorious team in the

2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its i ...

in France, turning in a player of the match performance in the semi-final, and scoring a goal in the final in a 3-1 win over Spain.

Senior

On 11 November 2018, Nagano debuted for senior team against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. In 2022, now a regular in the Japan national team, she was part of the team that won the

in Japan.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

;Urawa Red Diamonds *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Empress's Cup , since 2018 renamed "Empress's Cup JFA Japan Women's Football Championship" ( ja, 皇后杯 JFA 全日本女子サッカー選手権大会) or The Empress's Cup, is a Japanese Women's football competition. As an elimination tournament, it can be ...

runner-up:

Nadeshiko League Cup The Nadeshiko League Cup (Japanese: なでしこリーグカップ) is a cup competition for women's football clubs in Japan. The competition began as the L.League Cup in 1996 and it was abolished after the 1999 edition. It reappeared on the occ ...

runner-up:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels *

WK League The WK League (Hangul: WK리그) is a semi-professional women's football league, run by the Korea Football Association (KFA) and the Korea Women's Football Federation (KWFF), which represents the sport's highest level in South Korea. The regular ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...

Japan U17 * AFC U-16 Women's Championship:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Japan U20 *

AFC U-19 Women's Championship The AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup is an association football tournament for women's national teams under the age of 20, organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is organised by the Asian Football Confederation every two years, and serv ...

* FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup:

Japan *

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...

Individual

Golden Ball:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

: 2016

References

External links

* * * *
Japan Football Association

Fuka Nagano
at Urawa Red Diamonds

at Mynavi Sendai Ladies
Fuka Nagano
at Liverpool FC Women {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagano, Fuka 1999 births Living people University of Tsukuba alumni Association football people from Tokyo Japanese women's footballers Women's association football midfielders Japan women's international footballers Nadeshiko League players Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies players Chifure AS Elfen Saitama players Mynavi Vegalta Sendai Ladies players Asian Young Footballer of the Year winners Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels WFC players North Carolina Courage players Liverpool F.C. Women players WK League players Japanese expatriate footballers Expatriate women's footballers in South Korea Japanese expatriate sportspeople in South Korea WE League players National Women's Soccer League players Japanese expatriate sportspeople in England