Khadija “Bunny” Shaw has reversed an expected exit and signed a new four-year deal to stay at Manchester City, ending weeks of uncertainty over one of the Women’s Super League’s most prolific forwards. The Jamaica striker, who had signalled she was heading for the door, was presented as a committed City player again on stage during Monday’s trophy parade in Manchester.
The timing matters because City are still riding the momentum of their May 2026 WSL title and go to Wembley on Sunday to face Brighton in the FA Cup final. Keeping Shaw, who scored 21 times in 22 league games this season, gives City the finisher they built the title challenge around and removes the danger that a rival could have been handed one of the league’s most reliable scorers just as the season reaches its last major domestic prize.
For City, this is more than a sentimental contract renewal. Victory over Brighton would deliver their first league and FA Cup double, and their first two-trophy season since 2019. It would also be their first FA Cup success in six years and their first in front of fans for seven, after the 2020 extra-time win over Everton came behind closed doors during the pandemic. Shaw’s goals were central to the league title, and her decision to stay keeps the squad’s sharpest edge intact.
What made the turnaround possible was a late intervention from senior management in the men’s arm of the club. Shaw had previously made it plain that she expected to leave, with other clubs offering more lucrative contracts and talks with City having broken down. Instead, her contract requests were met, and the outcome is one City needed badly as it tries to keep its title-winning core together rather than watch it thin out at the first real sign of market pressure.
Laura Blindkilde Brown, who played in 20 of City’s 22 WSL games this season and started 18 of them, said the mood inside the squad had already shifted toward more ambitious targets after the league win. “Because we’ve won silverware, there’s more hunger there to win even more,” she said. “We were in the Champions League two years ago and we did well there and now it’s about trying to push on there and hopefully win that as well.”
Blindkilde Brown added that the squad was trying to keep its focus simple before Wembley. “We’re just trying to separate both, celebrate first and then really turn our focus on to Wembley,” she said. City beat Brighton in the league in April, but Sunday is the match that will define how quickly this side can turn one title into something bigger. Shaw’s stay means they will try to do it with the same striker who nearly left and then chose not to.
