Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw has taken first place in the voting for the coveted Professional Footballer’s Association (PFA) Women’s Player of the Year award.

Shaw beat five other nominees, all of whom play for Chelsea or Manchester City, to win the award, beating teammates Lauren Hemp and Yui Hasegawa, as well as Chelsea’s Lauren James, Niamh Charles and Erin Cuthbert. None of the six women had previously won the prestigious award.

Founded in 1907, the PFA is the English players’ union. Since 1974, male members have voted for their Player of the Year each year. In 2013, a new award for Female Player of the Year was introduced, with all players in the Women’s Super League eligible to join the previously all-male union next season.

The first winner of the women’s award was Kim Little of Arsenal FC 11 years ago and, as with the Women’s Super League title, this award was dominated by players from the top three clubs – Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.

Last year, Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly became the first winner from outside the top three clubs to be named Player of the Year. Now normal operations have resumed and Shaw is the third Manchester City player to win the award and the first in seven years after Izzy Christiansen (2016) and Lucy Bronze (2017).

Shaw, who was already named Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Player of the Year in May, has now achieved a remarkable double win, becoming only the third woman after Chelsea’s Fran Kirby (2018 and 2021) and Sam Kerr (2022) to win both individual awards, voted for by players and journalists respectively, in the same year.

Shaw is also the third consecutive winner of the Players’ Player of the Year award and finished the season as the Women’s Super League’s top scorer, following in the footsteps of Kerr and Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly.

Only Daly last year and Vivianne Miedema in 2019 finished a WSL season with more goals than Shaw did last season. However, with her 21 goals in just 18 league games, she has by far the best strike rate at an astonishing 1.36 goals per game. Only an injury in the final month of the season prevented Shaw from having the opportunity to equal the record of 22 goals in a season.

Despite the individual accolades, it was an ultimately frustrating season for her club, finishing second to Chelsea in the title race on goal difference only. Shaw’s position as her team’s best striker is now under pressure after Manchester City signed one of the few women to have scored more WSL goals than her, Vivianne Miedema, on a free transfer from rivals Arsenal.

Manchester United’s Grace Clinton is the winner of the PFA Women’s Young Player of the Year award. She spent last season on loan at Tottenham Hotspur, but after such a good season she missed out on playing in the Women’s FA Cup final when Spurs faced her parent club at Wembley. However, she is the first woman from either club to win the award.