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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
FIRST EDITION
© Maya Yoshida 2018
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Cover photograph © Colin Bell 2018
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Maya Yoshida asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008289331
Ebook Edition © May 2018 ISBN: 9780008289348
Version: 2018-09-13
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
On 24 August 2017 I opened a new chapter in my life as a Southampton player when I signed a new three-year contract with the club.
I felt rejuvenated. On Southampton’s official website the announcement of my new contract was accompanied by a photo of me with Mr Les Reed, the club’s vice chairman, smiling and shaking each other’s hand.
In truth, the vice chairman and my agent had been locked in a heated discussion until the very last minute in our final negotiation, which was supposed to be a formality, and my presence was required ‘only to sign on the dotted line’, according to my agent. Sitting next to him, I was actually thinking, ‘This is so not what I expected …’, although I also have to admit that a situation like this is not unusual in the world of professional football. Business is business.
The three-month-long negotiation came to a conclusion and a new contract, which had always been the first priority for both the club and myself, was finally agreed. It was, in fact, my second new contract here at this club on the south coast of England. I was delighted that I could continue my journey as a Southampton player and try to better myself through all the challenges we continued to face together. Not only signing, but also announcing the new contract on my 29th birthday, was the best present I could possibly have asked for.
Playing in the Premier League had been my dream ever since I made up my mind to become a professional footballer in my early teens. It was also one of the goals I was audacious enough to believe would eventually be achieved. With the 2017/18 season being the sixth in my Premier League career, I honestly feel, as I said through the club’s website when my new contract was announced, ‘Southampton is my home.’ That was my sincere first thought.
Then I received another ‘offer’, this time from a British publisher. It was shortly after I began my sixth Premier League season as a Southampton centre-back, resolved to make it the fifth consecutive top-10 finish for the club. In England the summer transfer window for a player usually closes at the end of August. The market is always open for authors, though, and I had no reason not to listen to what they had to offer.
The offer was, as it turned out, from one of the major publishers in the United Kingdom. Just by taking a quick look at their authors’ list in the sports non-fiction category, I could see all those big names, including David Beckham and Frank Lampard, with whom I had dreamed to be on the same field when I was a kid. And now, here was an opportunity to put my name onto the same list as them.
Even though the book was explained to me as a joint project with the publisher’s Japan office, to my Japanese mind it felt like I would become the author of a ‘foreign book’. It is true that it has been more than eight years since I moved abroad, so I am used to being away from Japan. I could add that I am now quite comfortable communicating in English. As an author, I already have some experience publishing my books in my native country and, at one time, even joked that I rather fancied a quality post-playing life living on my book royalties. But still, publishing a book in English in the United Kingdom sounded a ‘tough ask’ to me. It was as if I would have the Premier League of publishing to prove myself in, as well as the real Premier League.
Then an editor at the publisher said to me, ‘Don’t worry. You have resilience, Maya!’
‘Ri-zi-li-ens?’ I couldn’t even spell the word in my head at first. There seem to be various meanings in Japanese for this word, such as gyakkyo-ryoku (capacity to recover from adversity), orenai-kokoro (unbroken mind), fukugen-ryoku (ability to spring back into shape) or taikyu-ryoku (durability).
My interpretation is