Career
Nagoya Grampus
Born in Nagasaki, Japan, 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 he had transferred to Dutch club VVV-Venlo.
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. On 9 August 2013, it was announced that Yoshida would be on the front cover of the Japanese Edition of Fédération internationale de football association 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 assistant 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 2015-2016 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 Saint Mary"s over West Ham.
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.