Introduction
Maya Yoshida (吉田 麻也, Yoshida Maya, born 24 August 1988) is a Japanese footballer who plays as a centre back for Serie A side Sampdoria, on loan from Premier League club Southampton, and captains the Japan national team.
Club career
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 at 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. In August 2017, Yoshida signed a further extension of his contract with Southampton until 2020.
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.
Loan to Sampdoria
On 31 January 2020, Yoshida joined Serie A side Sampdoria on loan until the end of the season.
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 was 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.
On 31 May 2018, Yoshida was selected in the 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He played every single minute in all the group stage matches against Colombia, Senegal and Poland. His side were knocked out of the tournament after losing 3–2 to Belgium in the round of 16 match.
On 14 November 2019, Yoshida played his 100th match for Japan against Kyrgyzstan.
Career statistics
Club
- As of 4 January 2020
| Club | Season | League | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||
| Nagoya Grampus | 2007 | J. League Division 1 | 19 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | - | - | 24 | 1 | ||
| 2008 | 22 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | - | - | 29 | 2 | ||||
| 2009 | 30 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 2 | - | 48 | 8 | |||
| Total | 71 | 5 | 11 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 11 | 2 | - | 101 | 11 | |||
| VVV-Venlo | 2009–10 | Eredivisie | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 2010–11 | 20 | 0 | - | - | - | 4 | 0 | 24 | 0 | |||||
| 2011–12 | 32 | 5 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 4 | 0 | 37 | 5 | ||||
| 2012–13 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Total | 54 | 5 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 8 | 0 | 63 | 5 | ||||
| Southampton | 2012–13 | Premier League | 32 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 34 | 0 | ||
| 2013–14 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | - | - | 14 | 2 | ||||
| 2014–15 | 22 | 1 | - | 1 | 0 | - | - | 23 | 1 | |||||
| 2015–16 | 20 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | - | 27 | 2 | |||
| 2016–17 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | - | 37 | 2 | |||
| 2017–18 | 24 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | - | 28 | 2 | ||||
| 2018–19 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | - | - | 20 | 0 | ||||
| 2019–20 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - | - | 11 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 154 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 19 | 2 | 10 | 0 | - | 194 | 9 | |||
| Career total | 279 | 16 | 23 | 4 | 27 | 3 | 21 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 358 | 25 | ||
International
- As of 14 November 2019
| Japan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 2010 | 1 | 0 |
| 2011 | 12 | 2 |
| 2012 | 9 | 0 |
| 2013 | 15 | 0 |
| 2014 | 11 | 1 |
| 2015 | 13 | 3 |
| 2016 | 10 | 3 |
| 2017 | 9 | 1 |
| 2018 | 9 | 0 |
| 2019 | 11 | 1 |
| Total | 100 | 11 |
International goals
- As of match played 10 October 2019. Japan score listed first, score column indicates score after each Yoshida goal.
| No. | Date | Venue | Cap | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 January 2011 | Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar | 2 |  Jordan |
1–1 | 1–1 | 2011 AFC Asian Cup |
| 2 | 2 September 2011 | Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan | 9 |  North Korea |
1–0 | 1–0 | 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 3 | 14 November 2014 | Toyota Stadium, Toyota, Japan | 47 |  Honduras |
1–0 | 6–0 | Friendly |
| 4 | 12 January 2015 | Newcastle Stadium, Newcastle, Australia | 49 |  Palestine |
4–0 | 4–0 | 2015 AFC Asian Cup |
| 5 | 3 September 2015 | Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan | 56 |  Cambodia |
2–0 | 3–0 | 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 6 | 12 November 2015 | National Stadium, Kallang, Singapore | 60 |  Singapore |
3–0 | 3–0 | |
| 7 | 24 March 2016 | Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan | 62 |  Afghanistan |
3–0 | 5–0 | |
| 8 | 3 June 2016 | Toyota Stadium, Toyota, Japan | 64 |  Bulgaria |
4–0 | 7–2 | 2016 Kirin Cup |
| 9 | 5–0 | ||||||
| 10 | 28 March 2017 | Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Japan | 73 |  Thailand |
4–0 | 4–0 | 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 11 | 10 October 2019 | 98 |  Mongolia |
2–0 | 6–0 | 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Honours
Southampton
- EFL Cup runner-up: 2016–17
Japan
- AFC Asian Cup: 2011; runner-up: 2019