Maya Yoshida

Nagoya Grampus

Born in Nagasaki, Yoshida had been a defensive midfielder when playing for Grampus's youth team, but was converted to a centre back after promotion to its top team in 2007. In the 2008 season, he was in the starting lineup for most of the league matches with his Serbian teammate Miloš Bajalica. He scored Nagoya Grampus's historical first goal in the AFC Champions League in the game against Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i on 10 March 2009.

VVV-Venlo

In December 2009, it was announced that Yoshida had transferred to Dutch club VVV-Venlo. He had desired to play for a club in Europe since he was young. Keisuke Honda who was his teammate of Nagoya Grampus introduced his agent, Tetsuro Kiyooka to support his future vision. Indeed, Yoshida followed the footsteps of Keisuke Honda who also played for VVV-Venlo before he joined them. He scored a bicycle kick goal for VVV-Venlo off a corner kick on 11 September 2011 against PSV Eindhoven. The match ended in a 3–3 draw. This goal was awarded as "Goal of the Season 2011–2012" of the Eredivisie. In this season Maya Yoshida scored as a central defender 5 goals in total.

Southampton

On 30 August 2012, he agreed to join Southampton on a three-year contract for a fee thought to be in the region of £3 million. He made his debut for the Saints on 15 September 2012, against Arsenal in a 6–1 defeat, coming on as a 28th-minute substitute for Jos Hooiveld. He then made his home debut a week later on 22 September 2012 in a 4–1 win over Aston Villa, playing the whole 90 minutes.

On 9 August 2013, it was announced that Yoshida would be on the front cover of the Japanese Edition of FIFA 14.

He scored his first goal for Southampton in a 2–1 defeat to Sunderland in the League Cup on 6 November 2013. He scored his first Premier League goal in a 3–1 defeat at West Ham United on 22 February 2014 after a Steven Davis free kick.

His next goal came on 20 December 2014, in a 3–0 victory over Everton, with Steven Davis again providing the assist.

In January 2015 Southampton announced that Yoshida and the club had agreed terms to an extension of his contract until 2018.

On 28 October, he scored his first goal of the 2015–16 season with a 20-yard strike against Aston Villa in the League Cup. Yoshida's second goal of the season came on 6 February 2016 in a 1–0 victory at St. Mary's over West Ham.

International career

Yoshida earned a call-up for Japan's U-23 team in April 2008 and was a member of the Japan team for the 2008 Summer Olympic finals.

He made his full international debut for Japan on 6 January 2010 in a 2011 AFC Asian Cup qualifier against Yemen. Yoshida subsequently played in all three of the group-stage matches, the quarter final and final for the winning Japan side in 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

Yoshida was named as captain for the Japanese National Team at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He also participated in Japan's 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign and participated in all of Japan's group stage games at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Yoshida has been selected as a member of the Japanese team for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. He played Japan's opener match against debutant Palestine and scored the final goal in a 4–0 win.

International goals

Club

¹Includes Emperor's Cup, KNVB Cup and FA Cup.

²Includes J. League Cup and Football League Cup.

³Includes AFC Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

⁴Includes Eredivisie Playoffs.

Honours