Khadija Shaw is made for the big stage. She has presence, a big personality and an infectious, radiating smile. That smile could get a little bigger this weekend as Manchester City host rivals Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium. The Jamaica international is one goal away from breaking Manchester City Women’s goalscoring record. She is tied on 64 goals with former City midfielder Georgia Stanway, a tally Shaw has reached in 81 appearances compared to Stanway’s 170.
City signed Shaw from French Division 1 side Bordeaux in 2021 for her goalscoring prowess. She was the league’s top scorer with 22 goals in 20 games in her final season there and she is replicating that form in England, leading the Women’s Super League golden boot race on 16 goals from 15 games.
Nicknamed ‘Bunny’ by older brother Kentardo because of her love of carrots, Shaw lights up a room as soon as she walks in. As the 6ft Jamaica international enters Manchester City’s indoor football arena, braids hanging down her back, there is a spring in her step. She takes a seat, ready to analyse some of the 65 goals she has scored for City.
We start with a crucial one against rivals Chelsea, which ended the reigning champions’ run of 33 unbeaten league matches at home.
“From the beginning of the season, one of our things was pressing out of possession,” says Shaw. “When we press the way we know we can press, not only do we win possession, but we’re higher up to score. Me and Jess (Park) have been working on pressing and communicating. This scenario already happened in training.” Park dispossesses the usually reliable Erin Cuthbert in Chelsea’s half.
“That was all Jess,” says Shaw. “When she picked the ball up, I was just thinking: ‘Drive, drive, drive, drive.’” Park plays, in Shaw’s words, a “perfect pass” and literally ‘feeds the Bun’, a chant sung by the City fans.
At this point The Athletic stops the footage but Shaw carries on, the goal etched in her memory. “I took a touch,” she says. “I knew (Chelsea defender Jess) Carter was on my left…
“So I wanted to take an extra touch to get into the box, so even if she made contact it’s a penalty…
“Then I waited for the keeper to come. I just lobbed it over in the corner.” Shaw opts to shoot with the outside of her right foot. “Carter was already on my left,” she explains. “So if I put my left foot back, maybe my leg would have touched her and it would have thrown me off. The keeper was going to close the angle. If I used my left foot, I would have to put it extra wide and I didn’t want to miss the goal.”
Khadija Shaw reviews footage of herself in action for this article with The Athletic (Charlotte Harpur)
Shaw runs towards the stands, cupping her hand to her ear and stands bolt upright in front of the Chelsea fans. It was Shaw’s first league goal against Chelsea and brought City level with their title rivals at the top of the WSL. “I love the big games,” says Shaw. “The hype, the atmosphere, the build-up, everything in these games just gets me pumped and ready to go.”
It is not the first time she has silenced rival crowds in big games. In front of 43,615 fans at Old Trafford in November, Shaw dealt the killer blow in a 3-1 win over Manchester United. Once again, pressing was key.
“How satisfying was this one?” asks The Athletic. “Very,” replies Shaw. “I’ll walk you through it.” Shaw tucks her chair in and takes full control of the laptop.
Mary Earps plays the ball to Maya Le Tissier…
“I just thought I’m gonna go for it,” says Shaw, who closes Le Tissier down. “If it was me, I would have played the ball back first time but she (Le Tissier) takes a touch. It’s under her feet and then she plays a softer pass.
“I don’t see Mary yet. As I’m running on, I see her. I’m closer to the ball than her and she’s running straight onto it….
“So I’m not going to jump, I’m just gonna leave a leg…”
Earps’ clearance rebounds off Shaw into the back of the net. “What did you think when that went in?” asks The Athletic. “I was watching it too, you know!” says Shaw. “I was like, ‘YESSS!!!“. While Shaw wheels away, teasingly nodding her head to the United fans, the camera pans to Earps, who mouths: “What the f***?”
“We warmed up in that corner and the fans were giving us pure stick,” says Shaw. “Chloe (Kelly) said: ‘I love this!’ So when I scored I went over there and I was like, ‘OK, what are you gonna say now?’”
Shaw then pulls out some dance moves, celebrating with Kelly, a routine inspired by Nigerian singer David Adeleke, better known as Davido, who performed at the Professional Footballers’ Association awards a couple of months earlier. “I practicsed it,” explains Shaw. “I asked Chloe how I looked and she said I looked great. On matchday she said if either one of us score, we’re going to perform it. I completely forgot, she came, she reminded me, started doing it. Bam! Viral. I think it got over a million views.”
@barclayswsl 🥵 CHLOE KELLY 🥵 #barclayswsl #bwsl #chloekelly #mancitywomen ♬ Vois Sur Ton Chemin – D$8 & DKSH & SLAP HOUSE MAFIA
The striker’s family, who live in Manchester, were not in the crowd that day as they had given their tickets to Shaw’s friends who had flown in especially from Jamaica. Shaw, who is very proud of her Jamaican roots, has a fellow lover of Jamaican culture in the City squad.
“I tell everyone Chloe (Kelly) is 60 per cent Jamaican,” she says. “I truly believe it.” When Shaw first met the England international in the summer of 2021, Kelly suggested going to a Jamaican restaurant together in Manchester. “We were driving in the car and Chloe started playing Jamaican music,” says Shaw. “We got to the restaurant and I thought ‘let me see what you’re going to order’. She wanted plantains and everything. I was like, ‘Oh my God, wow, it’s crazy!’. I get along really well with Chloe, she’s class off the field.”
Kelly, according to Shaw, sometimes tells her to be more selfish in front of goal. In the next clip, Shaw is the architect of her own fortune. As Liverpool set up for the goal kick, Shaw’s shoulders are square to the defender.
“I almost look like I’m not interested,” she says. “I make them feel like they can make that pass. In my head, I’m willing them, ‘Go on, make that pass’. Shaw momentarily looks up from the laptop.
“Yes, G!” Shaw shouts as her team-mate Alex Greenwood walks past. “Make that pass,” says Greenwood, smiling. “Make that pass, G!” replies Shaw. Shaw’s eyes return to the screen.
“I’m not even looking at the ball,” she says. “I always look at the player. I invite that pass. It’s like playing a game. As soon as the goalkeeper puts her head down, I go.” (Shaw claps her hands). With a half turn, she changes her body shape.
“She has committed to making that pass so I can get a step ahead. Even if I don’t win the ball, at least I apply pressure.” Shaw nicks the ball and slots home. “There was no chance that you were passing this to Chloe?” asks The Athletic. “She didn’t even call me!” Shaw laughs. “When I won that ball I was definitely going straight to goal.”
Manager Gareth Taylor has spoken to Shaw about aggression off the ball. “I’m a naturally aggressive player, not that I want to be but because of my physicality,” she says. “He just told me to embrace it. In training I work on it with the girls sometimes.”
At times, however, Shaw gets frustrated when she is penalised for fouls which in her eyes are not offences. Her red card in the Women’s World Cup against France last summer after a second yellow card springs to mind.
“Because I’m naturally physical, it comes off as a foul,” she adds. “If it were another player, it probably wouldn’t be.”
Focusing purely on Shaw’s physique would be to do her technical qualities an injustice. Before the next clip plays, The Athletic asks if she remembers this goal. Shaw looks at the still image of the build-up.
“Long ball from Leila (Ouahabi),” she replies without a moment’s hesitation. “I assisted a similar almost pitch-perfect ball like this to Julie (Blakstad) last season.”
Shaw gets in between the two Everton centre-backs and allows the long ball to bounce. “Once it bounces, I see the goalkeeper in my vision. I don’t know why she is coming. If I control the ball, it would have been difficult because there’s three defenders and the goalkeeper.”
“The only way I am going to get an attempt on goal is to put it over her.” With a swerve of the hips, Shaw lobs the goalkeeper.
Asked if she works on her hip mobility, Shaw reveals the greatest sprinter of all time and fellow Jamaican, Usain Bolt, gave her a few tips when he watched their 2-0 home win over Chelsea last season. “I have a pelvic tilt and he had a back problem when he was in track and field,” Shaw says. “He told me to strengthen my back as well as my core. When you have a strong core and back, it helps you maintain your posture for longer when you’re running.
“I try to spend more time on my hips and adductors so that I’m able to make certain movements and when I get on the field it’s not really uncomfortable.I saw it was working on the field and I just stuck at it. Here we are,” she smiles, casually.
Shaw, who loves the gym, demands a lot from herself physically and mentally. “I get very hard on myself in training,” she says. “You hear me scream and yell. Sometimes you think I’m going crazy but that’s just how I am as a person. I want to try to do the best that I can to help the team.”
A minute before scoring this audacious chip, Shaw had missed a penalty. Taylor has highlighted her mental resilience, comparing her to another prolific City striker, Erling Haaland. “These players are just so supremely, mentally strong, that they’re able to just go again and know that they’re going to get opportunities,” Taylor said a year ago.
Shaw says the team gives her the confidence to keep trying. “The players trust me enough to give me the ball to score,” she says. “I might miss two or three. Sometimes I get on at myself. I say: ‘Focus on the next one, (Shaw claps her hands), you better make sure you put this on target. I can’t dwell on the past. I have to focus on the future.”
We get ready to move on. Once again, Shaw is one step ahead, just like she is on the pitch. “I wonder if this was the free-kick against Everton…” she says. It is. Alex Greenwood stands over the ball. “Pause a second,” Shaw instructs The Athletic. She wants to provide some context.
“I have a very good relationship with Alex (Greenwood). Just before she took the free kick, she was telling me, ‘Come across!’. I was like: ‘Shut up and just let me be, just put the ball (in). I promise I’m gonna get there.’
“We drive each other. We hold each other to very high standards. If you hear us, you think we hate each other. That’s just how we hold each other accountable in games. I know where she’s going to put the ball, she knows where I’m going to be. I like to create a block so that I’m able to get free, she crosses the ball and I score. Alex was like: “OK, OK, I hear you, I hear you, it’s all you.”
Scoring an acrobatic diving header to round off a hat-trick is as simple as that for Shaw but it’s not quite that straightforward. Can she elaborate on how she “creates a block” and times her run? Shaw leans closer to the screen to explain. “You see three players here,” she points. “You see where Leila is. I’m going to run in front of Leila. This person is trying to block me. This person is marking Leila. I don’t know what this one is doing.
“This person (Shaw’s marker) would normally be tighter to me. I told Leila, ‘Just turn and block’. If she creates the space for me, then I can be freer. That millisecond gives me the chance to get on the ball.“ Shaw makes a darting run…
“I had to stretch to get it. I was in mid-air with this pass. If it’s Alex or Chloe it’s going to be a quick whip so I have to get on my bike to get in the box or else they’re going to be onto me, just like if they don’t give me a good ball, I’m gonna be onto them.”
Shaw’s heading is one of her greatest assets and she says her height and physicality “gives her the edge” but that was not always the case. She used to be a midfielder until she went to college in the United States. Even then she was “scared because (she) saw crazy stuff happening, (like) concussions.
“Sometimes heading comes with confidence,” Shaw says. Now, she finds it easy. “Especially with my height. That’s why I always tell them to put the ball in the air. One, I’m more physical. Two, I have height. When I jump, surely I should be even taller.”
With that combination, Shaw is, at times, unstoppable in the air, as shown against Tottenham Hotspur when her header sailed past compatriot Becky Spencer.
“That’s just straight power,” she says. “When the ball is whipped in from a wide area, it’s just about getting the power. Once that ball is in the air, I give myself some time to get a run onto it. The ball is straight at the keeper but because I am coming in so hard and I put so much power in, it’s difficult for her to save. The header isn’t even to one of the corners.”
Shaw’s second goal against Spurs is all about her movement, something she practises frequently in training with assistant coach Shaun Goater. At first she moves towards the ball…
…and then suddenly changes direction.
“I know I’m trying to create space for my second movement,” she says. “I remember I scored this and looked to the bench for Shaun. It’s the perfect scenario we spoke about. That’s why I was so happy, it worked!” Despite Jill Roord’s low delivery, Shaw stoops to head the ball instead of using her feet. “I’m sure when I direct the ball with my head it’s going to go on target,” she says. “Sometimes you can’t trust the feet.”
The next clip proves otherwise. The initial cross from the left is overhit but comes out to Laia Aleixandri. Shaw raises her arm, demanding the ball. “I was onto Laia,” she says. “I told her: ‘Listen, you put that ball in, don’t play with me!’”
The cross comes shorter than expected. Shaw adjusts and chests it down…
“Leila is screaming for it, but the way I chest it I know I have space to turn,“ she says. Shaw swivels and executes well to complete another hat-trick. “It was a perfect goal,” she says.
Shaw agrees her hold-up play since joining City has vastly improved.
“My hold-up play comes in two different situations,” she says. “When a player is touch-tight to me, that’s the best feeling because I can easily roll them. Once I feel you, it’s game over. That makes me happy. What I find now is that sometimes they give me space.
“As the ball is coming in, I check to see if I have space. If I do, I take the extra touch to then try to find my No 8 or No 10. If they come tight, I just roll them and play. I try to put my body in between the person and the ball. Once I’m in between, there’s no way on earth you’re going to get the ball.”
“This is what I’m saying!” she says as the next clip plays right on cue. “When you’re touch-tight, I can roll you.”
Kerstin Casparij cuts the ball back to Shaw, who is tightly marked by the Aston Villa defender….
A touch with her right foot opens up her body, taking the ball away from her marker but also the goal.
“There’s no way I could go front post — the keeper and players are there,” she says. Shaw admits she could have laid the ball off but instead spins on the spot and unleashes a left-footed shot.
“Let’s see the next one,” she says, perching on the edge of her seat, leaning ever closer to the screen, skipping through yet more clips. “What else?” she asks.
But time is up.
There will surely be plenty more goals though, and she might be celebrating breaking City’s goalscoring record on Saturday in the derby. Her goals will be needed if they are to pip Chelsea to the title.
“The more I score, the more confident I become and so does the team,” she says. “They always say, ‘Bunny, you lead from the front’. I just have to keep going.”
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
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