Maya Yoshida

Nagoya Grampus

Born in Nagasaki, Japan, Yoshida began playing football at Nanling FC in his second year at elementary school. His older brother, Honami, played an important role in starting his football career when he searched on the internet for Nagoya Grampus's U-15 team and this led Yoshida to join the U-15 team. Once Yoshida joined, he relocated to Nagoya to be close at Nagoya Grampus and attended Toyota High School. After spending five years at Nagoya Grampus Youth Academy, he was promoted to the first team in the 2007 season, having signed his first professional contract. Yoshida joined the club's first team training soon after and started out as a defensive midfielder while playing for Nagoya Grampus's youth team, but was converted to centre back. After spending months on the substitute bench, Yoshida finally made his debut for the club, coming on as a second-half substitute, in a 2–1 loss against Oita Trinita on 3 May 2007. Since then, he became a first team regular for Nagoya Grampus, playing in the centre–back position. On 5 November 2007, Yoshida scored his first goal for the club, in a 3–1 win against Thespa Kusatsu in the fourth round of the Emperor's Cup. At the end of the 2007 season, he went on to make twenty–four appearances and scoring once in all competitions. In the 2008 season, Yoshida began to feature in the starting line-up for most of the league matches, forming a centre–back partnership with his Serbian teammate Miloš Bajalica. He started the…

Youth/Olympics career

Yoshida was first called up to Japan's U-23 team in April 2008 for the first time following good performance at Nagoya Grampus. A month later on 22 May 2008, he made his Japan U23 debut in the Toulon Tournament and started the whole game, in a 2–1 win against France. Yoshida went on to make two appearances in the tournament, as Japan U-23 finished fourth place after reaching the semi–finals. It was announced on 14 July 2008 that Yoshida was called up to the Japan U-23 team for the 2008 Summer Olympic in Beijing. After appearing twice as an unused substitute, he made his debut in the tournament, starting the match, in a 1–0 loss against Netherlands on 13 August 2008 and the Samurai Blue was eliminated from the tournament. Four years later, Yoshida was called up to the Japan U-23 team for the second time ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Ahead of the tournament, he was named as captain by Manager Takashi Sekizuka. Yoshida's first match as captain came on 26 July 2012 against Spain and helped the Samurai Blue keep a clean sheet, in a 1–0 win. In the next two matches, he helped the Japan U-23 team keep two more clean sheets against Morocco U23 and Honduras U23 with a win and draw respectively, resulting in Japan U23 qualifying for the knockout stage. Yoshida scored his first goal of the tournament, scoring a header from Hiroshi Kiyotake's free kick, in a 3–0 against Egypt U23 in the quarter–finals. However, he continued to lead Japan U23…

Club

As of match played 29 August 2026

International

Scores and results list Japan's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Yoshida goal.

Yoshida has two brothers: Mirei and Honami He later credited his older brother, Honami, for playing an important role in his football career. Before he was born, his name "Maya" was originally planned for a girl when his mother was pregnant. But the name was kept even if it was a boy who was born. Yoshida revealed on his blog on 26 September 2012 that he was married. Four years later, Yoshida revealed he was a first time father when his wife gave birth to a baby daughter. During his time at Southampton, Yoshida resided in Winchester. After spending seven years at Southampton, Yoshida revealed in an interview with SunSport that he had become a permanent resident in the United Kingdom and feels 25 per cent English. His family runs a boarding house in Nagasaki for children who cannot go to high school. Growing up, Yoshida revealed that he is a fan of the anime and manga series Dragon Ball Z, and had an entire collection of Dragon Ball Z memorabilia until his father donated them to charity. Yoshida reflected on this, saying it helped him to think generously and give back to society. In November 2007, Yoshida affiliated himself with FIFA Players' Agent Tetsuro Kiyooka, in hopes of moving to Europe. It worked when he joined VVV-Venlo, three years after becoming Kiyooka's client. Since moving to Europe, Yoshida created a personal blog, where he reflected about his experience living and playing in a different continent. On every anniversary of the Atomic bombings, Yoshida, who is…