IWABUCHI Mana, who has been active for the Nadeshiko Japan women Japan's national soccer team for a long time, announced her retirement this month and explained the reason for her retirement, saying, "I felt that I could no longer play the football I had been playing for the past year."
The 30-year-old Iwabuchi is a small but skillful dribbling and goal-scoring striker who has been active in the women's Japan national team "Nadeshiko Japan" since she was a teenager.
Since participating in the World Cup in Germany in 10, when Japan won the World Cup for the first time at the age of 2011, he has participated in three consecutive tournaments, but he was not selected from the squad at this year's tournament and announced his retirement on SNS on the 18st of this month.
Iwabuchi held a press conference in Tokyo on the afternoon of 3 August, and explained the reason for his retirement, saying, "Over the past year, I felt that I could no longer play the football I had been playing as before. Even if we were able to qualify for the World Cup, I thought it would be the last time we played there."
He then reflected on his playing career, saying, "I was blessed with wonderful people around me who played football as much as I wanted, and I don't think I could have felt the joy of working towards my goals with them without football.
Homare Sawa makes a surprise appearance at the press conference
At the press conference, Homare Sawa, with whom she fought for Nadeshiko Japan, made a surprise appearance and Iwabuchi was in tears when she was presented with a bouquet of flowers.
Iwabuchi expressed her desire to focus on promoting women's football rather than coaching in the future, saying, "I don't know what I can do yet, but I want to do activities that give small girls at least one choice so that they can contribute to the growth of women's football."