WSL Football Awards 2025/26
Taittinger on arrival, dressing-room playlists on the speakers and the entire women’s football pyramid packed into one ballroom. We got the golden ticket to the WSL Football Awards and headed inside to see what happens when the women’s game gathers under one roof.
By Glorious
By the time the arancini balls started circulating for the third time, Hannah Hampton had already collected the Golden Glove for the second consecutive season, becoming the first player to win the award twice, while Lucy Bronze was deep in conversation with a Chelsea supporter and creators filmed content somewhere near the bar.
Glorious were at the Pan Pacific Hotel Ballroom in London for the WSL Football Awards, the annual end-of-season gathering that now pulls together pretty much every corner of the women’s game in England. Players, managers, WSL and WSL2 staff, creators, supporters, former players, broadcasters and media all dropped into one hotel ballroom for the evening, somewhere between a football awards ceremony and the world’s most well-dressed end-of-season social.
Hosted by Ayo Akinwolere and Pien Meulensteen, there were glasses of Taittinger on arrival, red carpet dresses and sharp tailoring everywhere and a soundtrack built from club-submitted dressing room anthems and gym playlists echoing around the room. One minute it was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the next Sean Paul, while people stopped every few metres for another conversation somewhere between the escalator and the bar.
celebration
The atmosphere made sense for a league structure that now stretches across multiple divisions and clubs around the country, but still somehow feels unusually connected. WSL players mingled with WSL2 players. Supporters chatted to creators. Former teammates who now work on opposite sides of the game caught up over drinks while photographers, creators and club content teams moved through the room.
The awards themselves reflected another huge season across both divisions. Shaw’s Golden Boot came after a campaign that saw her score 21 goals in 22 matches, becoming the first player in league history to score 20 or more goals across three separate seasons.
Elsewhere, Kirsty Hanson picked up Goal of the Season for her absurd strike against West Ham United earlier in the campaign, while Hannah Hampton secured the Golden Glove for the second consecutive year after another standout season for Chelsea.
There was recognition for the next generation too. Veerle Buurman collected the WSL Rising Star award after breaking into Chelsea’s first team following her loan spell at PSV, while Birmingham City defender Neve Herron won the WSL2 Rising Star award after helping guide the club back into the top flight.
Manchester United goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce was recognised with the Player Champion of Change award for her environmental work away from football, including partnerships with Ocean Rising and 11th Hour Racing alongside educational initiatives with young people through Manchester United Foundation projects.
The loudest applause of the evening came during the Hall of Fame tributes for Casey Stoney, Kerys Harrop, and Matt Beard, the former Millwall, Chelsea, and West Ham manager inducted posthumously following his death last year as one of the most influential and respected figures in the history of the women’s game.
Elsewhere, Basil Goode, one of the most recognisable Chelsea supporters around the women’s game, spent most of the evening bouncing between conversations before eventually treating the room to an impromptu dance midway through the night.
By the end of the evening, as I chatted to football creator Tyra Mills whilst eating what was probably my tenth arancini ball of the night, it became pretty clear what the WSL Football Awards actually represent now.
It is no longer just a top-flight ceremony handing out trophies at the end of the season. It is a yearly meeting point for a football culture that now stretches far beyond a single division. Championship players collected major awards alongside established internationals. Supporters shared the same room as title winners and Hall of Fame inductees.
For all the corporate conversations around growth in women’s football, this room was probably the clearest reflection of where the game currently sits in England. Bigger than it was a few years ago, certainly, but still connected enough that the entire ecosystem can gather under one roof and feel recognisably part of the same world.
Find out more about the WSL here.
Title image: Newcastle United forward Shania Hayles arriving at the WSL Football Awards.
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