On December 14, 2003, Boca They beat Milan on penalties at the Yokohama International Stadium and won, thanks to Carlos Bianchi, their third Intercontinental Cup. As had happened three years before, also for the Intercontinental and in that historic victory against the Galacticos of Real Madrid, Boca was once again king in Japanese lands. Thousands of local fans accompanied the more than 10,000 fans who had traveled from Argentina in search of the world title in the stands of the Yokohama International Stadium. Nine months earlier, less than 30 kilometers from that stage where Xeneize would obtain its twelfth international star, Yuria Sasaki, a little fan from Boca who, at 23 years old, will fulfill every fan’s dream of defending his team’s colors on the field. The story of Sasa, as her classmates nickname her, seems taken from a Hollywood movie. Admirer of the club from a distance, He trained in a small soccer school that Boca has in Japan. and traveled to Argentina with the sole objective of joining the Gladiators. In a conversation with LA NACION, Sasaki recounted his adventures in getting to the club, comparing himself to Nahoiro Takahara and she was excited to become the first Japanese soccer player to win a Copa Libertadores.
“Boca, passion”, repeats Yuria, happy with life, after the 8-0 win over UAI Urquiza in a Pedro Pompilio complex packed with fans, who are now lining up to ask for a photo. Six days before, Sasa had made her debut in none other than the Superclásico of women’s soccer, with a 2-0 victory at the River Camp. Born on March 10, 2024, Yuria started playing football in one of the 30 official schools that Boca has spread across four countries: 22 in Brazil, three in India, one in Peru and four in Japan. Sasaki began playing at the Xeneize headquarters in Tokyo, her hometown, and since then she pursued the desire to wear the blue and gold. “I started playing soccer when I was six years old, along with my brother. Boca is the most famous club in Japan and I really wanted to play here,” says the number 29 of the Gladiators. And she adds: “I am a Boca fan because I started there, because of the passion of their fans and because of how they live football.”
Yuria Sasaki put on the Boca shirt for the first time shortly after turning 11 years old. She joined the women’s team of the little school that the Ribera entity has in Shinagawa, Tokyo, and it did not take long to show her conditions. There she met Koto Yamamoto, current manager of the school; Hirotaka Deguchi, her coach, and the Argentine Juan Escudero, three people who are fundamental for her development as a soccer player.
“How did I get to Boca? By plane,” she responds, laughing, to LA NACION’s query. Yuria speaks some English and in the months she has been in Argentina she learned a little Spanish. At this time she also incorporated certain customs. “As soon as I arrived, my colleagues invited me mate. I like it, it’s delicious, I can drink it”he says, in a very good mood.
In 2023, Sasaki obtained contact with the Internet through the Escudero family, which for some years has been dedicated to mediating the arrival of Japanese players to different clubs in Argentina. The society is made up of cousins Juan, Sergio and Damián Escudero. Juan is a specialist in children’s soccer and was in charge of the Boca school in Saitama. Sergio was born in Granada, Spain, the son of Argentine parents and when he grew up he acquired Japanese nationality, since his father also obtained citizenship. He was a member of the Japan Under 23 team in the 2008 Toulon Hopes Tournament and spent one hundred percent of his career in Asian territory: Japan, South Korea and China. And Damián is the son of Osvaldo Salvador, the Pichi, youth champion along with Maradona in 1979 who also turned around with Diego in the Metro 1981, during his fleeting time in Boca. Damián, the only one based in Argentina, came from Vélez and also went through the xeneize, where he played 13 games between August and November 2010, with Claudio Borghi as coach.
Yuria wanted to play for Boca and found a way to achieve that goal. She arrived on January 11, alone, and settled in an apartment. She had previously played for Urawa Reds Ladies, one of the giants of Japanese football; the Keio University of Minato, Tokyo, and the Essendon Royals SC of Melbourne, Australia, in addition to representing her country in different categories of the national team, in 2016 and 2022. Sasaki herself sent them videos of her game and insisted on the idea of coming to Boca to try. The link between the Escudero and the xeneize was Maximiliano Scapparoni, the club’s former goalkeeper who was a teammate of Escudero in Boca (he went to the bench twice, one of them against River) who is part of the coaching staff led by Florencia Quiñones.
“Playing for Boca is a dream for me. Soccer in Argentina is very fast and that makes it fun. My wish is to become champions this year and win the Libertadores,” she is excited. The Cup will be played between October 3 and 19 in Uruguay and Boca is the only Argentine qualified, since the tournament grants only one place for the country. Yuria, with a contract until December, will go for the crown. In 2022, Xeneize fell in the final against Palmeiras and in 2023 they returned to the first round.
Although he knows Juan Román Riquelme through videos, Yuria has not yet had contact with the number 10. He grew up watching Lionel Messi, his idol, and partly because of him he began to play in his position. He is defined as gamemakerplaymaker, although she also knows how to recover and occupy defensive positions.
Yuria had not yet been born when Naohiro Takahara became the first Japanese soccer player to arrive at Boca. The forward arrived at the club at the initiative of Mauricio Macri, who sought to install the “Boca brand” in Asia based on the sensation that Xeneize’s victory over Real Madrid had caused in the public. Takahara played six games for the club and scored a single goal – against Lanús – for the 2001 Apertura. At the end of that year, Bianchi left him out of the trip to Japan for the Intercontinental with Bayern Munich and Takahara emigrated to Mexico, prior to its consecration in Germany.
“I know Takahara’s story, he managed to play in Argentina and had a lot of success throughout his career. I hope I can repeat his story and win many titles at the club,” he enthuses, and poses again smiling for the fans waiting for the photo.