Maika Hamano (, ''Hamano Maika''; born 9 May 2004) 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 lea ...

who plays as a forward for

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), also known as the Barclays Women's Super League for sponsorship reasons, and formerly the FA WSL, is a professional association football league and the highest level of women's football in England. Currently oper ...

club Chelsea and the Japan national team.

Club career

Hamano made her

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 football league in Japan. The current ...

debut for

INAC Kobe Leonessa INAC Kobe(INAC神戸レオネッサ, Ainakku-Kōbe Reonessa) is a professional Japanese women's soccer, football club from Kobe, founded in 2001. INAC stands for International Athletic Club, while Leonessa means Lioness in Italian language, Ita ...

on 12 September 2021 in a 5–0 victory over Omiya Ardija Ventus. On 13 January 2023, Hamano signed for Chelsea and was immediately loaned to Swedish side

Hammarby IF Hammarby Idrottsförening ("Hammarby Sports Club"), commonly known as Hammarby IF or simply Hammarby ( or, especially locally, ), is a Swedish sports club located in Stockholm, with a number of member organizations active in a variety of differ ...

. There, she made 17 league appearances and scored 7 goals during the 2023 Damallsvenskan season, before being recalled in September after sustaining a shoulder injury. After recovering from injury, Hamano made her

debut for Chelsea on 17 December 2023 in a 3–0 away win over

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

, replacing Lauren James in the second half.

International career

In July 2022, Hamano was included in the Japan under-20 team for the 2022 U-20 World Cup, where they finished as runners-up after losing to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in the final. She won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, and the Silver Boot as the second-best goalscorer behind

Inma Gabarro María Inmaculada "Inma" Gabarro Romero (; born 5 November 2002) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for English Women's Super League club Everton and the Spain national team. Club career Gabarro started her care ...

. Hamano made her senior team debut on 6 October 2022, when she came on as a substitute for

Mina Tanaka is a professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for National Women's Soccer League club Utah Royals and the Japan women's national football team, Japan national team. She has previousl ...

in the 69th minute of a 2–0 friendly win over

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. On 13 June 2023, she was included in Japan's 23-player squad for the 2023 World Cup. On 14 June 2024, Hamano was included in the Japan squad for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. Hamano was part of the Japan squad that won the

2025 SheBelieves Cup The 2025 SheBelieves Cup, named the 2025 SheBelieves Cup Presented by Visa for sponsorship reasons, was the tenth edition of the SheBelieves Cup, an invitational Women's association football, women's soccer tournament held in the United States. Fe ...

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

INAC Kobe Leonessa *

: 2021–22 Hammarby IF * Swedish Cup: 2022–23 Chelsea *

: 2023–24, 2024–25 *

Women's FA Cup The Women's FA Challenge Cup is the top annual cup tournament for women's clubs in English football. Founded in 1970, it has been named the WFA Cup, FA Women's Cup, and now Women's FA Cup (currently known as the Adobe Women's FA Cup for sponso ...

: 2024–25 * Women's League Cup: 2024–25 Japan U16 *

AFC U-16 Women's Championship The AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup, founded as the AFC U-17 Women's Championship and later the AFC U-16 Women's Championship, before changing to its current name after the 2019 edition, is a biennial women's football tournament for youth teams organis ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Japan *

SheBelieves Cup The SheBelieves Cup is an invitational women's association football, women's soccer tournament held in different cities in the United States in late February or early March. In its first three years (2016, 2017, and 2018), it was contested by t ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

Individual *AFC U-16 Women's Championship top scorer: 2019 *

FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is an international association football tournament, organized by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), for national teams of women under the age of 20. The tournament is held biennially. ...

Golden Ball:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

*AFC Youth Player of the Year:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamano, Maika 2004 births Living people People from Takaishi, Osaka Association football people from Osaka Prefecture Japanese women's footballers Women's association football forwards Japan women's youth international footballers Japan women's international footballers Cerezo Osaka Yanmar Ladies players INAC Kobe Leonessa players Chelsea F.C. Women players Hammarby Fotboll (women) players Nadeshiko League players WE League players Damallsvenskan players Women's Super League players Japanese expatriate women's footballers Japanese expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate women's footballers in England Japanese expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate women's footballers in Sweden 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup players Olympic footballers for Japan Footballers at the 2024 Summer Olympics 21st-century Japanese sportswomen