LONDON, UK – Jamaica international Khadija Shaw has left France for England to join Women’s Super League (WSL) side Manchester City, saying she likes their style of play.
Jamaican international Bunny Shaw.Twenty-four-year-old Shaw, nicknamed Bunny because of her fondness for carrots at an early age, has signed a three-year deal after two seasons with French club Girondins de Bordeaux.
The five-foot, 11-inch forward, who helped Jamaica qualify for the 2019 Women’s World Cup, the first Caribbean nation to do so, said: “I want to come in and show what I can bring to the team. I just can’t wait to get going.
“I’ve got a lot of messages for the fans. I can tell they are very excited about me and I am excited to play in front of them. Hopefully, with my hard work, the fans can see the type of player I am.
“I am a simple player. I like the way Manchester City play. They build up, try to connect passes and play through teams. They try to get players in behind once they are in the attacking third and, for me, that is the type of football I like to play.
“I really enjoy playing that style of football. It also shows my best qualities. To watch Manchester City and see that is one of their strengths was one of the main reasons why I made this decision,” added Shaw, who graduated with a communications degree from the University of Tennessee in May.
Her arrival in Manchester follows the announcement of a three-year broadcast deal that will see WSL games shown on network free-to-air TV in the UK for the first time.
Established in 2010, the WSL is run by the Football Association and currently features 12 fully professional teams.
“The standard is getting better every year with the quality and caliber of players that are going over to England to compete,” said Shaw, who describes herself as a “jovial and open person”.
Shaw, who scored 10 goals in her first season with Bordeaux and 22 in her second, made her senior Jamaica international debut in August 2015, netting twice in a 6–0 victory over the Dominican Republic in an Olympic qualifying game.
The daughter of father George, a shoemaker, and mother Monica, a chicken farmer, Shaw grew up in Spanish Town – the birthplace of singer Grace Jones and sprinter Yohan Blake – as the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters, but lost three brothers and a nephew to gang violence.
A fourth brother died in a car accident.
