Khadija Shaw wins Football Writers’ Association women’s player of the year

Shaw has started every WSL game for City this year, scoring 19 goals and providing four assists as they won their first title in a decade. Her goal haul includes the quickest hat-trick in WSL history during March’s win against Tottenham Hotspur, and four goals in December’s victory over Aston Villa.

Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes is the winner of the men’s award.

‘Another trophy for a total forward’

Analysis by women’s football writer Megan Feringa

Welcome to the year of the Bunny. Shaw that is. At 29 years old, it’s belated that the Jamaica striker is finally being recognised as the generational talent she is, that her days as the season trundles to a close are busied by learning how to best balance various pieces silverware in her arms without bruising as clubs around the globe attempt to cajole her into signing on their dotted line.

Since moving to the WSL in 2021 from Bordeaux, Shaw has established herself as one of women’s football’s most lethal goalscorers. But for years, Shaw was limited to this one-dimensional tag: City’s goal-glutton but one lacking the finer points of an all-around forward.

Over the past two seasons, Shaw hasn’t just challenged these (often incorrect) critiques but transcended them. She has honed her touch, her passing, her link-up play, the runs she makes to open up space for her teammates. That her goalscoring has only improved (three years after becoming the first WSL player to score three hat-tricks in a calendar year, she scored the WSL’s fastest hat-trick at 12 minutes and 37 seconds) is testament to just how impressive a total forward she is.

There are (yes) areas of improvement. Shaw’s insatiable appetite to be the best is rivalled only by her desire to do everything to achieve that. Which should scare you. Of what exactly is a better version of Shaw capable? How do you stop that version? Should you even try?

They are questions with which to reckon in the summer, as is Shaw’s future as she potentially enters free agency. Shaw will likely (and rightly) accrue an era-defining wage, fitting for a player who is regularly setting an era-defining bar for what the best can achieve.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Manchester City, Jamaica, Women's Soccer

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