Khadija Shaw wins WSL player of the season and Golden Boot

Khadija Shaw turned a record-breaking season into another landmark for the Barclays Women’s Super League, winning WSL Football’s Player of the Season and the Golden Boot at a ceremony in London. The Manchester City striker finished with 21 goals in 22 league matches, a haul that not only secured her third straight Golden Boot but also made her the first player in WSL history to do it three years in a row.

Shaw’s numbers underlined how much one elite scorer can shape a league’s profile. She became the first player to record 20 or more goals in three separate English top-flight seasons and reached 100 WSL goal contributions in just 93 matches, a pace that speaks to both consistency and durability. Earlier this month, she also collected the Football Writers’ Association women’s player of the year award, adding another national honor to a campaign that put her at the center of the title race and the awards race at once.

Manchester City’s league triumph gave her season a team frame as well as an individual one. City won the 2025/26 WSL title with a game to spare, claiming their first league championship since 2016 and their second in the professional era. Shaw’s goals were central to that run, including a decisive final-day brace against West Ham United that clinched the Golden Boot. She scored against 10 of City’s 11 league opponents, with goals against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United showing how often she delivered against the division’s biggest names.

The award also reflected the league’s widening competitive base. The Player of the Season shortlist included City team-mate Kerstin Casparij, Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson, Spurs’ Olivia Holdt, Everton’s Ruby Mace, Manchester United’s Jess Park, Arsenal’s Alessia Russo and Chelsea’s Alyssa Thompson, a spread of clubs that speaks to a deeper and more marketable competition. Shaw also produced the quickest and earliest WSL hat-trick of all time against Tottenham Hotspur earlier in the season, another headline moment in a campaign built for visibility.

Since joining City from Bordeaux in the summer of 2021, Shaw has scored 117 goals in 137 appearances for the club. For City, and for the WSL, her season offered more than an individual prize: it showed how star power, scoring records and a tighter competitive field are helping turn elite women’s football into a bigger sporting and commercial product.