Modest 23-year-old, who stayed in Japan to focus on her education alongside playing football, is the breakout performer
If this World Cup has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected. No player exemplifies this better than Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa. The 23-year-old has been the star of the team that has taken the tournament by storm, raising the question of how she arrived in Australia and New Zealand so unnoticed.
Her story began in a small coastal town, an hour’s drive south of Tokyo. For Miyazawa, football started at home with her older brother Keita, an amateur player, introducing her to the game at the age of three.
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