Transfers
Yoshida signed a one-year contract last summer at the end of his stint with Italian side Sampdoria and the 34-year confirmed on social media that he would not be returning to the club from Gelsenkirchen.
“We have had a long, tough season behind us, but in the end the result wasn't what we wanted,” Yoshida wrote in a message posted on social media.
“I would like to once again thank all the fans from the bottom of my heart. The atmosphere both at home and away was incredible and I will surely miss this. Thank you for welcoming me. I wish you all the best for next season. Once a Schalker, always a Schalker.”
Schalke were relegated following Saturday’s 4-2 defeat against RB Leipzig, which left the club 17th in the 18-team Bundesliga.
Former VVV Venlo and Southampton defender Yoshida, who started his career in the J1 League with Nagoya Grampus, moved to Schalke after a two-and-a-half-year spell with Sampdoria.
He has represented Japan on 126 occasions, including at each of the last three FIFA World Cup tournaments, but he has not been selected by national team coach Hajime Moriyasu since the Samurai Blue were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Croatia in Qatar in December.
Yoshida helped Japan to the 2011 AFC Asian Cup title and also captained the side that reached the final of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, when Moriyasu’s side lost in the decider to Qatar.
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