is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

NJ/NY Gotham FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

and the Japan women's national team. Yokoyama goes by ''

he/him In Modern English, ''he'' is a singular, masculine, third-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''he'' has four shapes representing five distinct word forms: * ''he'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''him'': the accus ...

'' and ''

singular they Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentence ...

'' pronouns.

Club career

Yokoyama was born in Tama,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, on 13 August 1993. After graduating from high school, he joined

Okayama Yunogo Belle The Okayama Yunogo Belle is a Japanese women's football club based in Mimasaka, Okayama, Japan.Results
...

in 2012. In 2014, he moved to

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

Division 2 club AC Nagano Parceiro. He became top scorer in

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 ...

and

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. The club was also promoted to Division 1 from 2016. In 2016 season, he was selected Best Eleven. In July 2017, he moved to German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

club

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. In July 2018, Yokoyama returned to AC Nagano Parceiro. In December 2019, he signed with the

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

National team career

In 2010, Yokoyama was selected Japan U-17 national team for 2010 U-17 World Cup. He played 6 games and scored 6 goals, and Japan won 2nd place.Statistics
in

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

's website He received one of the ten 2010 FIFA Puskás Awards nominations for his winning goal in the semifinals against

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

, which made the headlines and was compared to

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

's second goal against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

. In 2012 he was also a member of Japan U-20 national team for 2012 U-20 World Cup which Japan won 3rd place. In March 2015, he was selected Japan national team for

2015 Algarve Cup The 2015 Algarve Cup was the 22nd edition of the Algarve Cup, an invitational Women's association football, women's football tournament held annually in Portugal. It took place on 4–11 March. Format Because of the number of competitive teams thi ...

. At this competition, on 6 March, he debuted and scored a goal against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. In 2018, he played at 2018 Asian Cup. He scored 4 goals include 2 goals at semifinal and a goal at

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, and Japan won the championship.

Personal life

In June 2021, Yokoyama came out as a

transgender man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that inclu ...

in a video interview conducted by former Nadeshiko striker

Yuki Nagasato Yuki, Yūki or Yuuki may refer to: Places * Yuki, Hiroshima (Jinseki), a town in Jinseki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yuki, Hiroshima (Saeki), a town in Saeki District, Hiroshima, Japan * Yūki, Ibaraki, a city on Honshu island in Japan * Yuki ...

; Yokoyama decided to come out publicly after encouragement from his girlfriend.

Club statistics

National team statistics

List of match i
2015

at Japan Football Association

Honors

; Team *

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 ...

: ''Champion (1)'' :

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

; Individual *

2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2010 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Women's association football, women's football tournament is the second such tournament, and was held in Trinidad and Tobago from 5 to 25 September 2010. Sixteen teams, comprising representatives from all six c ...

: Silver Ball, Bronze Shoe * 2014 L.League Division 2 : Top scorers

References

External links

* * *
Japan Football Association
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yokoyama, Kumi 1993 births Living people People from Tama, Tokyo Association football people from Tokyo Metropolis Japanese women's footballers Japan women's international footballers Nadeshiko League players Okayama Yunogo Belle players AC Nagano Parceiro Ladies players Women's association football forwards 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Washington Spirit players National Women's Soccer League players Transgender sportsmen Japanese LGBT sportspeople Transgender men LGBT association football players NJ/NY Gotham FC players