Ayaka Yamashita
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Ayaka Yamashita, born 29 September 1995 in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan, is a Japanese goalkeeper playing for Manchester City. At club level, she won the WSL (2025/2026) and Women's FA Cup (2025/2026) with Manchester City, as well as the Empress's Cup (2023/2024) with INAC Kobe Leonessa. Internationally, she has earned 89 senior caps for Japan and competed in the 2019 and 2023 FIFA Women's World Cups, alongside the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics. Her major international titles include the AFC Women's Asian Cup (2018, 2026), Asian Games (2018), EAFF E-1 Football Championship (2019, 2022), and SheBelieves Cup (2025).
Her 2025-2026 season:
Composure and Footwork: Possesses exceptional technical comfort with the ball at her feet, enabling her team to build play smoothly out of the back under pressure.
Athletic Shot-Stopping: Combines rapid reflexes and explosive movement to control the penalty area, maintaining high agility to deny long-range strikes and close-range attempts alike.
League-Leading Clean Sheets: Led the Women's Super League in clean sheets during the 2025/2026 season with 7 clean sheets for Manchester City.
Solid Shot-Stopping Rate: Posted a 72.5% save percentage and a 41% clean sheet ratio over her campaign for Manchester City.