Bunny Shaw Wins PFA Players’ Player of the Year After Historic Manchester City Season

Khadija “Bunny” Shaw has been named the 2025/26 PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year after a season in which the Manchester City striker combined record-breaking scoring with the kind of consistency that made her the outstanding individual force in the Women’s Super League.

The Jamaican forward scored 21 goals in 22 WSL appearances, claimed the Golden Boot for a record third consecutive season and finished the campaign with 27 goals across all competitions.

Her fellow professionals have now given her the clearest endorsement available to an elite footballer.

Shaw has won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award for the second time in her career, having previously taken the honor in 2023/24. The latest award arrives after a season in which she also helped Manchester City win the WSL title and FA Cup.

Manchester City confirmed the award on August 25, describing Shaw as a central figure in the club’s successful 2025/26 campaign.

Why Bunny Shaw Won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year

The number that immediately stands out is 21.

Shaw scored 21 goals in only 22 league appearances, matching the best WSL scoring return of her career and finishing as the competition’s leading scorer.

Yet reducing her season to one total misses what made it so difficult for opponents to contain her.

Manchester City’s official data showed that Shaw also contributed four WSL assists and reached 100 goal involvements in the competition during the campaign.

She scored against 10 of City’s 11 league opponents, including Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, while continuing to produce goals late in matches when defensive concentration was already being stretched.

The award therefore reflects more than finishing ability.

Shaw became the focal point of a title-winning attack, handled the physical attention that follows an elite center forward and continued producing even when opponents knew exactly where City’s greatest scoring threat would come from.

A Record Third Straight WSL Golden Boot

The PFA award arrived after Shaw had already made WSL history.

Her 21 league goals secured a third successive Golden Boot, making her the first player to win the award in three consecutive WSL seasons.

She had scored 21 league goals in 2023/24 before sharing the 2024/25 Golden Boot with Alessia Russo after both finished on 12.

Another 21-goal campaign followed in 2025/26.

Manchester City also confirmed that Shaw became the first player in WSL history to reach 20 league goals in three separate seasons.

That distinction matters because goalscoring peaks are common in football. Sustained scoring at the same level is much harder.

Shaw has now produced elite output across multiple seasons while opponents have had years to study her movement, strength, finishing patterns and preferred areas.

The Peer Vote Gives This Award Extra Weight

The PFA Players’ Player of the Year carries a particular kind of credibility because the winner is chosen by professional footballers.

These are the defenders trying to stop Shaw, the midfielders tracking her movement and the players competing against Manchester City throughout the season.

The 2026 shortlist also reflected the depth of individual quality in the WSL.

Shaw was nominated alongside Manchester City teammate Yui Hasegawa, Arsenal forward Alessia Russo, Aston Villa’s Kirsty Hanson, Chelsea’s Lauren James and Manchester United’s Jess Park.

The Professional Footballers’ Association confirmed the six-player shortlist before the winners were announced at the annual PFA Awards ceremony in Manchester.

Being selected from that group by fellow professionals strengthens the case that Shaw’s season was not simply statistically impressive. It was respected across the league.

Shaw’s 27 Goals Were Part of a Complete Attacking Season

Across all competitions, Shaw finished with 27 goals in 32 appearances.

Manchester City also credited her with eight assists across the campaign.

That output challenges the idea that Shaw operates only as a penalty-box finisher.

Her physical presence allows City to play directly when necessary. She can hold defenders off, create space for runners, attack crosses and turn imperfect deliveries into dangerous situations.

Her movement inside the penalty area remains the foundation of her game, but the broader production shows a forward increasingly capable of influencing attacks before the final touch.

That distinction becomes more important as elite women’s football continues becoming tactically deeper and physically faster.

Manchester City’s Success Changed the Meaning of Shaw’s Season

Individual awards tend to carry more weight when they accompany team success.

Shaw’s goals helped Manchester City win the WSL and FA Cup during a season that strengthened the club’s position at the top of English women’s football.

She was central to that success rather than an isolated scorer producing numbers for a team falling short of trophies.

The relationship between individual excellence and collective progress has become one of the major themes across women’s football.

A similar pattern appeared at the international level during the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, where Cameroon completed a remarkable run to their first WAFCON title after entering the tournament through an expanded field.

Malawi produced another example of how individual attacking quality can reshape an entire team’s ceiling. Temwa Chawinga won the WAFCON Golden Boot as the Scorchers reached the final and qualified for their first Women’s World Cup.

The Sports Encounter documented Malawi’s breakthrough qualification after their quarterfinal victory over Ghana.

Shaw’s Manchester City season belongs in that broader conversation about the growing influence of elite forwards on the direction of women’s football.

She Has Now Passed 100 Goals for Manchester City

Another major milestone arrived during the season.

Shaw became the first player in Manchester City’s professional era to reach 100 goals for the club when she scored against Aston Villa in December 2025.

By the end of the league campaign, Manchester City listed her with 117 goals in 137 appearances for the club.

Those numbers provide useful context for the PFA award.

The 2025/26 season was not a sudden breakout from a forward discovering elite-level production for the first time. It was another dominant chapter in a scoring record that has been building since she joined City in 2021.

She had already become Manchester City Women’s record goalscorer in March 2024.

The gap between a prolific striker and a defining club player is usually measured over years rather than months. Shaw has now entered the second category.

Her New Manchester City Contract Matters

City have also secured Shaw’s future.

The forward signed a new four-year contract earlier this year, extending her stay at Manchester City until 2030.

That decision gives the club continuity around one of the most productive strikers in world football at a time when women’s football is becoming increasingly competitive in the transfer market.

Manchester City have made significant changes elsewhere across their football operation, including the transition surrounding the men’s team ahead of the new Premier League season.

The Sports Encounter’s 2026/27 Premier League preview examined how City are managing a very different transition on the men’s side following Pep Guardiola’s departure.

The women’s team have a clearer attacking reference point.

Shaw is signed through the end of the decade and remains firmly within the prime years of her career.

Bunny Shaw’s Success Carries Major Importance for Jamaica

The award also travels well beyond Manchester.

Shaw is already the most recognizable figure in Jamaican women’s football and one of the Caribbean’s most successful active players.

Her rise from Spanish Town to becoming the leading scorer for one of England’s biggest clubs has given Jamaica a global football figure whose influence extends beyond international tournament appearances.

That visibility matters as women’s football continues expanding into countries and regions that historically received less global coverage.

Africa has experienced a similar shift in recent months.

Algeria qualified for their first Women’s World Cup while Morocco secured another appearance, part of a changing international landscape ahead of Brazil 2027.

Malawi then pushed that story even further by reaching their first WAFCON final, a journey The Sports Encounter followed through their semifinal breakthrough.

Shaw operates in a different competition and on a different continent, but her career reflects the same broad trend. Elite women’s football is drawing defining players from a much wider global map.

The Numbers Explain Only Part of Her Dominance

There is a temptation with prolific forwards to treat every season as a mathematical exercise.

Goals per appearance. Conversion rates. Golden Boots. Records.

Those numbers matter, but Shaw’s value also lies in the tactical problems she creates.

Center backs cannot comfortably defend high against her because she can attack space. Dropping deeper creates another problem because she is strong enough to receive possession with a defender behind her.

Crosses become more dangerous because of her aerial presence. Loose balls inside the penalty area become emergencies because she reacts quickly enough to turn them into shots.

Opponents therefore need more than one solution.

That ability to alter how another team defends is one of the clearest signs of an elite forward.

Women’s Football Is Building More Global Superstars

Shaw’s award arrives during a period of rapid expansion for the women’s game.

Domestic leagues are growing commercially, international tournaments are attracting larger audiences and more players are becoming recognizable outside their home markets.

The next FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil will offer another significant stage for that development.

Africa’s qualification picture has already produced major changes, including first-time qualifiers Algeria and Malawi.

Malawi’s historic qualification showed how quickly a national team can alter its global standing when a generation of players begins producing at a higher level.

Elsewhere in women’s sport, questions about representation have become increasingly important too.

The Sports Encounter recently examined new broadcast guidelines designed to change how female athletes are filmed at the 2026 European Athletics Championships.

Those debates sit alongside the sporting achievements themselves. More visibility creates more scrutiny, more commercial opportunity and greater expectations around how female athletes are presented.

Shaw’s season gives that visibility a powerful sporting foundation.

What Comes Next for Bunny Shaw?

The difficult part now is repeating a season that already looks difficult to improve.

Twenty-one league goals produced another Golden Boot. Twenty-seven across all competitions helped Manchester City win major trophies. Her peers voted her the best player in the league.

She has also committed her future to City until 2030.

The next targets therefore become increasingly ambitious.

More league titles. European success. More scoring records. Further progress with Jamaica.

The strongest players eventually reach a point where they are competing as much with their own previous standards as with the players around them.

Shaw appears to have reached that stage.

TSE Verdict

Khadija Shaw’s second PFA Players’ Player of the Year award feels like a logical conclusion to a season in which almost every important indicator pointed in the same direction.

She scored 21 league goals in 22 matches, won a third consecutive WSL Golden Boot, reached 100 WSL goal involvements, passed 100 goals for Manchester City and finished the campaign with 27 goals across all competitions.

The trophies gave those numbers greater meaning.

The peer vote gave them authority.

Manchester City have now secured her through 2030, which means this story may still be closer to the middle of Shaw’s English career than the end.

For now, the 2025/26 season belongs firmly on the list of the strongest individual campaigns the WSL has produced.

And the players who had to face her clearly agree.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 2025/26 PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year?

Manchester City striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw won the 2025/26 PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year award.

How many times has Bunny Shaw won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year?

Shaw has now won the award twice. She previously received the honor for the 2023/24 season.

How many goals did Bunny Shaw score in the 2025/26 WSL season?

Shaw scored 21 goals in 22 Women’s Super League appearances.

Did Bunny Shaw win the WSL Golden Boot?

Yes. She won the 2025/26 WSL Golden Boot and became the first player to claim the award in three consecutive seasons.

How many goals did Bunny Shaw score in all competitions?

Shaw scored 27 goals in 32 appearances across all competitions during the 2025/26 campaign.

How many goals has Bunny Shaw scored for Manchester City?

Manchester City reported that Shaw had reached 117 goals in 137 appearances for the club by the end of the 2025/26 league campaign.

How long is Bunny Shaw’s Manchester City contract?

Shaw signed a new four-year contract that keeps her at Manchester City until 2030.

Who else was nominated for the PFA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year?

The shortlist included Yui Hasegawa, Alessia Russo, Kirsty Hanson, Lauren James and Jess Park alongside Shaw.

Where can I verify Bunny Shaw’s PFA award?

Manchester City officially confirmed Shaw’s award on its club website, while the PFA published the official 2026 awards shortlist ahead of the ceremony.

The Sports Encounter’s football coverage follows major domestic leagues, international tournaments, player milestones and the stories shaping the global game.