Manchester City pair Shaw and Hasegawa shortlisted for PFA award
Shaw and Hasegawa put Manchester City back in the PFA spotlight, with Shaw chasing another prize after 21 league goals and 100 club goals.
Manchester City’s Khadija “Bunny” Shaw and Yui Hasegawa have been named on the six-player shortlist for the Professional Footballers’ Association Women’s Players’ Player of the Year award, reinforcing City’s place at the center of the WSL’s individual honours race.
The PFA announced the shortlist on June 4, and the winner will be honoured at the 53rd annual PFA Awards ceremony in Manchester on Tuesday, August 25. The award is decided by PFA members, with players voting only for fellow players within their own league, which gives the recognition added weight among the game’s elite.
Shaw’s inclusion underlines the scale of her season. She won the award in 2023/24 and has now been shortlisted in three of the last four seasons. In 2025/26, she scored 21 goals in 22 league matches, was named Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year and Etihad Player of the Season, and became the first player in Manchester City’s professional history to reach 100 goals. She also reached 100 WSL goal contributions, a milestone that places her among the league’s most productive forwards.
Hasegawa’s nomination points to a different kind of value, one built on control rather than finishing. The Japan midfielder has been shortlisted for the third time and was central to City’s run to the WSL title. Manchester City said she finished second in the league for passes into the final third, joint-fourth for big chances created and second for interceptions, a statistical profile that captures both her passing range and her defensive reading of the game.
The other four nominees are Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson, Chelsea’s Lauren James, Manchester United’s Jess Park and Arsenal’s Alessia Russo. The list reflects both the depth of talent at the top of the women’s game and the growing visibility of its biggest performers across different clubs and styles.
City’s repeated presence on the shortlist also says something about the club’s place in the sport’s commercial and tactical rise. In the previous 2024/25 shortlist, Hasegawa was again among the top six alongside Mary Fowler, Mariona Caldentey, Erin Cuthbert, Alessia Russo and Phallon Tullis-Joyce. With Shaw supplying the goals and Hasegawa dictating the tempo, Manchester City have two very different kinds of elite value in the same team, and both are now in line for one of the game’s most respected peer-voted awards.
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