Khadija Shaw's two strikes in Manchester City's final day demolition of West Ham weren't just goals—they were history, marking her as the first player in WSL history to score 20 or more goals in three separate campaigns. It was a fitting capstone to a season of record-shattering achievements that has reshaped what we understand a striker can accomplish in England's top flight.
Shaw's dominance arrives at a moment when the WSL is built on attacking talent. Barcelona's Claudia Pina and Ewa Pajor have notched impressive tallies, while Sam Kerr—departing Chelsea after six years and five consecutive titles—remains a fixture in any conversation about the league's greatest. Yet the statistics paint a portrait of an attacker operating on a different plane. Her goals-per-90-minutes ratio of 1.08 in WSL history stands alone: no other player has managed a full goal per game. Her non-penalty conversion sits at 1.04 goals per 90 minutes, again the highest in the division's history.
The numbers accumulate into something almost impossible to parse. Shaw reached 100 goal contributions—82 goals and 18 assists across 93 appearances—in the second-quickest time any player has achieved that milestone. A four-goal masterclass against Aston Villa in December made her the first player to reach a century of goals for City. Her 31 headed goals rank highest in WSL history, four more than Bethany England. A 13-minute hat-trick against Tottenham in March swelled her career treble tally to six, more than any other player in the league's history. The WSL Golden Boot is hers for a third consecutive year.
Yet the most revealing stat may be this: since the start of the 2021-22 season, only Shaw has scored more goals in the WSL than Arsenal's Alessia Russo. Shaw has 83; Russo has 56. And Shaw did it as a more pure number nine, while Russo drops deep to build play.
It is tempting to declare Shaw the best striker in WSL history. But that conclusion would dismiss City teammate Vivianne Miedema, who holds records for most goals in a single match (six), most goal involvements in one game (10), most assists in a single match (four), and the most hat-tricks in a season (three). Miedema also leads the all-time scoring charts with 97 goals to Shaw's 83. She set the single-season goals record at 22, which Shaw fell one short of this year.
Still, Shaw's efficiency is extraordinary. She reached 80 WSL goals in 90 games; Miedema required 106. At her current pace, Shaw could become the WSL's all-time leading scorer within two seasons. Her trajectory has drawn interest from Chelsea, where she could arrive on a free transfer this summer after contract negotiations with City collapsed. Fans chanted "we want Bunny to stay" during City's Albert Hall celebrations, but Shaw's future remains uncertain.
What Shaw has proved beyond doubt is that the gap between elite and merely exceptional can be measured in goals per 90 minutes, in the speed of reaching milestones, in the quiet accumulation of records. By that measure, she is operating in a category of her own.