Japanese tarento and footballer
Karina Maruyama (丸山 桂里奈, Maruyama Karina, born 26 March 1983) is a Japanese tarento and former football player. She played for the Japanese national team. Since her retirement, Maruyama has been active as a television personality, represented by the talent agency Horipro.
Club career
Maruyama was born in Ota, Tokyo on 26 March 1983.
After graduating from Nippon Sport Science University, she joined TEPCO Mareeze in 2005 and was assigned to the section of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.[2][3]
Maruyama was selected as the L. League's Best Young Player for the 2005 season. She played in the L. League until the 2009 season. She left the league in 2010 to play for the Philadelphia Independence in the United States. In September, she returned to Japan and joined JEF United Chiba. In 2012, she moved to Speranza FC Osaka-Takatsuki (later Konomiya Speranza Osaka-Takatsuki). She retired at the end of the 2016 season.
National team career
In August 2002, Maruyama was selected to the Japan U-20 national team to play in the 2002 U-19 World Championship.[4] In October, she was picked in the Japan national team for the 2002 Asian Games. At this competition, on 2 October, she debuted against North Korea.[5] She played in the World Cup twice (2003 and 2011) and the Summer Olympics thrice (2004, 2008 and 2012). At the 2011 World Cup in Germany, she scored the only goal of the game, defeating the host country and taking Japan to its first ever semifinals of the tournament.[6] She played as a substitute in the final as Japan defeated the United States.[7] At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Japan won the silver medal. She played 79 games and scored 14 goals for Japan until retiring in 2014.
