Sara Ito joins Austria Wien

Austria Wien has signed 20-year-old Sara Ito. The midfielder from Japan had moved from her home country to Austria to join Wacker Innsbruck in the winter of 2022. She has already started training with the Violets.

"I am very happy to be able to play here in Vienna with Austria and in this great team. For me it is another promotion and now I want to prove myself at the higher level. I think we can achieve a lot together and I will give my best," said Sara Ito.

The 20-year-old started playing soccer as a young girl at Furoku SC, later played for Sekimae SC and then moved to the youth side of top club Nippon TV, Tokyo Verdy's women's soccer side.

In 2017, she finished third in the U16 Women's Asian Championship with Japan, and in 2019 she and her teammates were crowned U19 Women's Asian champions, with Sara scoring two goals in the process. Just a few weeks later, she won the first-ever edition of the AFC Women's Club Championship with Nippon TV Beleza, where she also got on the scoresheet.

In the winter of 2022, Ito moved to Austria to join Wacker Innsbruck, where she made her debut in the SPORT.LAND Niederösterreich Women's Cup on February 27. In total, she played twelve games for the Tyrolean side in the second half of the 2021-22 season in the Cup as well as in the Planet Pure Frauen Bundesliga, playing over 90 minutes eleven times and scoring one goal.

Sporting director Martin Pototschnig: "Sara is a technically very adept playmaker who will bring us more creativity for our game. She proved her qualities in Japan but also in Austria in the spring and we hope she can push our offense accordingly."