Joanna Ebsworth caught up with professional footballer Bunny Shaw, 28, who is widely considered to be one of the best female football strikers in the world…
Words: Joanna Ebsworth | Photography: Manchester City
Early days
The way things are structured in the Caribbean, people mostly believe in education, so I have a lot of teachers and chefs in the family. I’m the only one that sneaked around to become an athlete.
Track and field is the most successful sport in Jamaica, but football is the biggest and it was always around me. We played in the streets, and where I lived, my gate basically became the goal. Every evening, the boys would come out and play and I would watch from afar, but as the days went on, the closer I got to the gate. One day, I was sitting on the side and one of the teams was short of a player. They asked me if I could go in goal, and that’s how it started.
My journey to becoming a professional footballer has definitely been difficult. My parents didn’t want me to play football, but I was really good at it, so I had to sneak off to play when my mum went to the supermarket and my dad went to work. I had to make sure I was showered and back watching from the side before they came home so they wouldn’t catch me. One day, they did catch me, and I got a proper whooping for it, but I persisted. Eventually, they allowed me to play, especially when I got invited to represent Jamaica. That’s when they really gave me permission.
When I got a scholarship to go to America, I promised them I would just focus on my degree, come back, work and try to help the family. But the further on I went in college, the better I became at football, because I had the resources and the support there that I didn’t have back home in Jamaica. Then in 2019, we qualified for the World Cup, and everything changed. After that, I signed my first professional contract in France, played two years there and now I’m here at City.
Training
A typical training week, after playing on a Sunday, consists of having Monday off, training Tuesday and Wednesday, taking Thursday off, training Friday and Saturday, and then playing again on Sunday. Training sessions are usually an hour-and-a-half to two hours and, most days, we also do gym after training, have lunch, and sometimes do another gym session after that.
We don’t really have much time for extra individual training outside of football because the schedule is so hectic, especially with all the travelling. ‘Match-day +3’ is normally our hardest session, but as the week goes on and we get closer to the next game, the sessions get shorter and lighter, with fewer reps to taper down into match-day – my favourite day of the week!
Scoring goals is a reward for the team and all the hard work that we put in, because it’s a hustle out there for 90 minutes. I love the thrill and enjoyment of scoring goals and celebrating with my teammates afterwards. No matter how many goals I scored in the last match, I always want to be in front of the goal again in the next training session. The more I’m there, the more confident I feel for the next game, so that’s where I want to be, whether that’s small-sided games, attack versus defence, or finishing drills.
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Mindset
I think my ability to maintain a positive mindset comes from how I grew up and the lessons I carry with me now: ‘Control the controllables’. If you focus too much on things outside your control, it creeps in and affects you mentally. So, I just try to focus on what I can control, lock in, block out the negatives and distractions, and do what I need to do.
I’ve had injuries recently, and that definitely gets to you. Balancing personal life and football can be tough too, because it’s not always happy; sometimes things outside of football affect you. So, for me, it’s about having a strong mentality every single day and also making space for other things outside of football.
That’s where working with an organisation like Evelyn Partners has been really beneficial. They’ve supported me and numerous other players with managing our finances, educating us on what we can invest in, and what we can do with our careers outside of football, so that takes a lot of pressure off me. Often, we don’t think about life after football until it’s close. But with their help, I’ve been able to start preparing early. For me, that makes a huge difference. Once I know that side is sorted off the pitch, I can go out and give my maximum on the pitch.
Goals
My main goal is to help City achieve as much as we can this year. We’re not in the Champions League right now, so we have to put maximum focus, energy and effort into winning the league, winning the cups and, most importantly, qualifying for the Champions League for next season. Internationally, it’s about helping Jamaica qualify for the next World Cup. Qualifying starts in November, so that’s the big focus there.
Bunny Shaw is ambassador for Manchester City Women’s global partnership with leading wealth manager Evelyn Partners. Together, they offer players financial guidance and life-planning support through Rethink Rehabilitation and Rethink Retirement programmes.
