Sun Wen (footballer)

Sun Wen (; born 6 April 1973) is a Chinese former professional footballer who played as a forward. She previously captained the China national team and the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA).

In 2000, she won the FIFA Female Player of the Century along with Michelle Akers. Sun won both the Golden Ball (top player) and Golden Boot (top scorer) for her performance at the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. She is considered one of the all-time greats of the women's game.

After the retirement, she became vice-president of the Chinese Football Association in 2019.

Early life Sun began playing football around the age of ten. Her father, Sun Zonggao, was a recreational football player who took Sun with him to watch matches in the Chinese men's league. Sun credits him for influencing her foray into the sport.

Sun studied Chinese literature at the University of Shanghai.

Playing career

Club

Shanghai SVA Sun played for the Shanghai team in the Chinese women's league.

Atlanta Beat Sun played for the Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association from 2001 to 2002. She was the first overall pick of the WUSA's Inaugural Draft (together in the team, also was drafted her Asian compatriot Homare Sawa), but a knee and ankle injury limited her first season with the Beat to 13 games with five starts. During the league's semifinal match against the Philadelphia Charge, the Beat were down 2–0; however, Sun scored on a penalty kick and then provided the assist on the equalizer goal with a corner kick headed in by Cindy Parlow. The Beat would go on to win the match 3–2. She then notched the Beat's third goal in the Founders Cup, helping the team to an eventual 3–3 tie during regulation. The San Jose CyberRays won the title in a penalty kick shootout.

During the 2002 season, Sun played in 18 games, making 10 starts. She scored four goals as the Beat earned another chance at the playoffs, but the Beat were eliminated in the semifinals.

Sun announced her retirement from the WUSA in January 2003 to return to China in preparation for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup.

International Sun appeared on China's national squad at the age of 17 and went on to appear in four FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments for China and became one of three women to have played all of China's 15 matches in its three World Cup appearances. In 1999, she had 10 goals in her World Cup career, leaving her tied for second place on an all-time scoring list.

Sun helped the national team win the Asian Cup in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997.

Sun led China to a silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Athens, Georgia. During the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup, Sun scored seven goals and earned the Golden Ball (top player) and Golden Boot (top scorer) at the tournament.

She returned to the Chinese women's team from a two-year retirement on 15 December 2005. Due to injury reasons, Sun retired again after winning AFC Women's Asian Cup in 2006.

Matches and goals scored at World Cup and Olympic tournaments Sun played 28 matches and scored 16 goals in 4 world cup tournaments and 2 Olympics: China 1991, Sweden 1995, Atlanta 1996, USA 1999, Sydney 2000, USA 2003; she played and started every match for China. Sun Wen, with her China teams, won a silver medal at Atlanta 1996 Olympics, and finished second at USA 1999 world cup.

GoalMatchDateLocationOpponentLineupMinScoreResultCompetition1991-11-16Guangzhou Group stage1991-11-19GuangzhouStart37 Group stage1991-11-21FoshanStart Group stage1991-11-24GuangzhouStart Quarter-final1995-06-06GävleStart79 Group stage1995-06-08VästeråsStart Group stage1995-06-10VästeråsStart76 Group stage1995-06-13HelsingborgStart Quarter-final1995-06-15HelsingborgStart Semi-final1995-06-17Gävle Third place match1996-07-21MiamiStart Group stage1996-07-23Miami Group stage1996-07-25MiamiStart Group stage1996-07-28Athens GAStart Semi-final1996-08-01Athens GAStart32 Gold medal match1999-06-19San Jose CA Group stage171999-06-23Portland ORStart9Group stage2154181999-06-26E Rutherford NJ39Group stage511999-06-30San Jose CAStart Quarter-final201999-07-04BostonStart3Semi-final72 pk1999-07-10Los AngelesStart Final222000-09-14CanberraStart57Group stage832000-09-17MelbourneStart67 Group stage2000-09-20CanberraStart75 Group stage2003-09-21Carson CAStart; (c)29 Group stage2003-09-25Carson CAStart; (c) Group stage2003-09-28Portland ORStart; (c) Group stage2003-10-02Portland ORStart; (c) Quarter-final

Honors and awards Sun won both the Golden Boot (which she shared with Sissi, of Brazil) and the Golden Ball for the 1999 Women's World Cup, and became the first woman to be nominated for the Asian Football Confederation player of the year award.

In 2002, she received the FIFA Internet Award in the FIFA Female Player of the Century voting. While the overall award was won by American Michelle Akers, Sun received the most internet votes on the FIFA-website.

International goals No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1. 19 November 1991 Guangzhou, China 1–1 2–2 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup 2. 7 October 1994 Fukuyama, Japan 1–0 2–0 1994 Asian Games 3. 2–0 4. 12 October 1994 2–0 2–0 5. 6 June 1995 Gävle, Sweden 3–3 3–3 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup 6. 10 June 1995 Västerås, Sweden 2–1 2–1 7. 24 September 1995 Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 1–0 21–0 1995 AFC Women's Championship 8. ?–0 9. ?–0 10. 30 September 1995 1–0 4–0 11. 2 October 1995 1–0 2–0 12. 1 August 1996 Athens, United States 1–1 1–2 1996 Summer Olympics 13. 12 December 1997 Guangzhou, China 1–0 10–0 1997 AFC Women's Championship 14. 2–0 15. 24 January 1998 1–0 4–0 1998 Four Nations Tournament 16. 3–0 17. 21 July 1998 Montreal, Canada 1–0 4–0 Friendly 18. 3–0 19. 4–0 20. 14 March 1999 Faro, Portugal 1–0 4–0 1999 Algarve Cup 21. 2–0 22. 18 March 1999 Albufeira, Portugal 1–0 2–0 23. 25 March 1999 Holzwickede, Germany 2–0 3–0 Friendly 24. 22 April 1999 Hershey, United States 1–1 1–2 25. 23 June 1999 Portland, United States 1–0 7–0 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup 26. 3–0 27. 4–0 28. 26 June 1999 East Rutherford, United States 1–0 3–1 29. 2–0 30. 4 July 1999 Foxborough, United States 1–0 5–0 31. 5–0 32. 7 November 1999 Bacolod, Philippines 3–? 5–2 1999 AFC Women's Championship 33. 9 November 1999 2–0 15–0 34. 7–0 35. 19 November 1999 3–0 3–0 36. 12 March 2000 Lagoa, Portugal 1–0 4–0 2000 Algarve Cup 37. 4–0 38. 18 March 2000 Quarteira, Portugal 1–0 1–0 39. 31 May 2000 Canberra, Australia 1–0 1–0 Friendly 40. 2 June 2000 Sydney, Australia 1–0 1–1 41. 8 June 2000 Newcastle, Australia 1–2 2–2 42. 14 August 2000 Yangzhou, China 2–0 3–0 Friendly 43. 14 September 2000 Canberra, Australia 2–0 3–1 2000 Summer Olympics 44. 3–0 45. 17 September 2000 Melbourne, Australia 1–1 1–1 46. 20 September 2000 Canberra, Australia 1–1 1–2 47. 9 December 2001 New Taipei City, Taiwan 2–0 10–0 2001 AFC Women's Championship 48. 14 December 2001 1–2 1–3 49. 26 January 2003 Wuhan, China 2–0 2–0 2003 Four Nations Tournament 50. 22 February 2003 Marmande, France 2–0 2–1 Friendly 51. 16 March 2003 Ferreiras, Portugal 1–0 3–0 2003 Algarve Cup 52. 3–0 53. 18 March 2003 Albufeira, Portugal 2–1 2–1 54. 9 June 2003 Nakhon Sawan, Thailand 2–0 6–0 2003 AFC Women's Championship 55. 11 June 2003 3–0 12–0 56. 7–0 57. 8–0 58. 11–0 59. 12–0 60. 19 June 2003 Bangkok, Thailand 3–1 3–1 61. 7 September 2003 Dalian, China 2–0 13–0 Friendly 62. 5–0 63. 7–0 64. 21 September 2003 Carson, United States 1–0 1–0 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup

Personal life and Football administration career

After her retirement, Sun Wen worked in the Chinese media, advertising and education.

In August 2019, she was elected as the vice-president of the Chinese Football Association with a mission of the development of the women's football in China. She also worked as member of FIFA Technical Study Group in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup hosted in France and member of the Bid Evaluation Task Force for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Sun Wen (footballer)

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