Khadija Shaw became the first Jamaican footballer, male or female, to be nominated for the Ballon d’or in 2023, and ended up finishing 24th out of 30 finalists. This award is given to the best footballer in the world every year, and as such represents the pinnacle of the sport, at least individually. She also lead Jamaica’s female team to a second consecutive world cup berth, which again is a first for any Jamaican player or team. Having such a stellar year, and by extension such a great career so far, it begs the question: is Shaw Jamaica’s best ever footballer? I will not be including Jamaican born footballers who represented another country internationally, such as Raheem Sterling or John Barnes, even though I do believe her achievements are now comparable to even theirs.
Khadija Shaw
Firstly, to continue to list some of her many achievements, Shaw is her country’s highest ever goal-scorer, male or female, with 56 goals in just 38 games. This also makes her the all time leader in appearances for the women’s team. Her goalscoring record at the club level is similarly phenomenal, as she scored 32 in 35 league games for Bordeaux in France, before moving to England with Manchester City. Here she currently has has 32 goals in 45 league games while breaking records and winning several awards along the way. She became Manchester City’s highest ever scoring female in a season during the 22-23 season, and finished the year with 31 goals in 30 games overall, subsequently being voted the club’s player of the season. She was then named in the Women’s Super League team of the season, and also became the first Caribbean woman to be named CONCACAF female player of the year. That is a pretty impressive list of achievements for anyone, especially considering that those are only some of them, and that she had a pretty rough childhood, losing multiple brothers to gang violence, and is still only 26.
Current Candidates
Of the current crop of Jamaican footballers, there are four true standouts in terms of both team and individual achievements. Demarai Gray, Michail Antonio, Leon Bailey and Shamar Nicholson. The former two have been English Premier League standouts for years, while the latter two have played across various top 10 leagues in Europe, all to varying levels of success. Demarai Gray is the only current Jamaican footballer to have won a major league title, as he was a part of Leicester City’s legendary Premier League title winning team in 2016 (Wes Morgan, another Jamaican who is now retired was famously the captain of that team). Antonio is the highest scoring Jamaican ever in the Premier League with 63 goals and counting, and has recently won continental silverware with his club, West Ham, in the form of the Europa Conference League. Neither of them however have won many individual awards at the highest level, with Gray’s only ever top division individual award being the Premier League goal of the month for November/December 2022. Antonio has been named Premier League player of the month twice, and also was named to the Conference League team of the season during West Ham’s triumphant run. Shamar Nicholson has played in Slovakia, Belgium, Russia and now France, scoring in each while being especially prolific in Belgium and winning the Russian Cup with Spartak Moscow in 21-22′. He however has not won any individual awards of note, but he is the highest active goal-scorer among male footballers for Jamaica. Last but not least, Leon Bailey has played in Belgium, Germany and now in England with Aston Villa. He has not won any silverware on a team level, but does have a few impressive individual awards while playing for clubs of a generally higher standard than the other Jamaican men mentioned. He won the young player of the year award in Belgium in 15-16′, while being the newcomer of the season in Germany in 17-18′ while also making the team of the season that same year in the German top division; the Bundesliga. Based on these achievements, Bailey is probably the closest challenger to Shaw, especially given he has more of a chance to win more as he is 26 compared to his next closest challenger Antonio, who is 33.
Past Candidates
Ricardo Gardner, Luton Shelton and Lindy Delapenha are the standouts among several distinguished Jamaican male footballers over the years. Gardner, was capped 111 times for his country, was part of Jamaica’s only ever world cup squad in 1998, has the most appearances in the Premier League as a Jamaican with a whopping 342, and played in the League for 11 years, part of a 14 year career with Bolton Wanderers. He was also the first Jamaican to score in European continental competition when scoring in Germany against Juggernauts Bayern Munich in a 2-2 draw in 2007. However, despite such a long and fruitful career, his only real accolade of note was being Bolton’s player of the year in 2005-2006. Luton Shelton is Jamaica’s all time leading male scorer, with 35 goals in 75 games. At club level he was a European journeyman, playing in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Turkey, Russia and most notably, England with Sheffield United. While not particularly prolific in his club career, he did win team trophies in Sweden and Norway, and was once subject of glowing praise from then (and now legendary) Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola when his Norwegian team, Valerenga, played the Spanish Giants in a friendly in 2010, which does earn him a couple bonus points in my book. Finally. Lindy Delapenha was a trailblazer for Jamaican football in many respects. He was the first Jamaican to play professionally in England, playing for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Mansfield Town from 1948 to 1960. Despite limited appearances for Portsmouth from 1948-1950, he did play a part in their back to back title winning sides and thus became the first black player to win a First Division Championship medal (known as the Premier League since 1992).He was Middlesbrough’s leading scorer in three different seasons, and ended his English career having scored 93 goals in 270 appearances. He retired in 1960 from high level football before Jamaica became independent in 1962, and thus never recorded any playing time for his country of birth, but was undoubtedly a trailblazer for both Jamaican and Black footballers in general.
Honorable mentions go to Allan ‘Skill’ Cole, Onandi Lowe, Ian Goodison, Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore, Ricardo Fuller and Bobby Decordova-Reid.
Despite a plethora of talented and accomplished footballers from Jamaica over the years, Shaw, in my opinion has now cemented herself as her nation’s greatest ever player. and will only continue to add to her lead in this regard.