Naomi Osaka is serving up support for Courage—and women's sport.
The three-time Grand Slam champion has signed on as a co-owner of the North Carolina Courage pro women’s soccer team.
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Osaka announced her new role on Instagram captioning these shots joking "I'll probably have to brush up on these soccer skills, huh."
The Courage captured back-to-back NWSL championships in 2018 and 2019.
The 23-year-old superstar is the first investor in the Courage since Steve Malik acquired and relocated the team to North Carolina in 2017.
Osaka, who topped Forbes' 2020 list of the world's highest-paid female athletes, said she’s aiming to pay it forward supporting women’s athletes just as other women supported her as she scaled the tennis ladder.
“The women who have invested in me growing up made me who I am today and I cannot think of where my life would be without them,” Osaka said.
“My investment in the North Carolina Courage is far beyond just being a team owner, it’s an investment in amazing women who are role models and leaders in their fields and inspirations to all young female athletes.
“I also admire everything the Courage does for diversity and equality in the community, which I greatly look forward to supporting and driving forward.”
Chasing the bouncing yellow ball all around the world won't leave the world No. 3 much time to engage in her new team's day-to-day functions. Instead, Osaka envisions her role with the Courage as "strategic advisor."
“I plan to be involved as more of a strategic advisor on things like growing the brand, promoting women's sports, encouraging the next generation and tackling social issues," Osaka said.
The US Open champion, who has used her platform to support civil rights and social equality, said she was inspired to step into soccer seeing the U.S. National Women’s soccer team’s fight for equal pay with their male counterparts.
"Incredibly, sportswomen are still fighting for equal pay,” Osaka wrote in a column for Telegraph Women’s Sport. “While the US Women’s National Team is more successful than the men’s by every measure, they still earn less.
"In November, they agreed on a settlement with their governing body which secures equal working conditions. But the fight for an equal paycheck continues.”
The NWSL is proving popular with WTA stars.
Last summer, Serena Williams, husband Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, and their daughter, Olympia Ohanian all signed on as investors kicking off the new Los Angeles-based women’s soccer club. Serena and family joined actors Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Eva Longoria, America Ferrera and Jennifer Garner investing in the Los Angeles squad.
Photo credit: North Carolina Courage