A tip onto the crossbar in November. Six months later, that single moment has put Chiamaka Nnadozie in contention for the biggest individual goalkeeping award in English women’s football.
Chiamaka Nnadozie has been nominated for the Barclays Women’s Super League Save of the Season award, recognising her remarkable stop against Liverpool’s Fuka Nagano in Brighton’s 1-1 draw at the Broadfield Stadium in November 2025. The Super Falcons goalkeeper produced a full-stretch dive to tip a long-range Nagano strike onto the crossbar, a save that was judged by WSL voters to be the best of that month and is now in contention for the season’s greatest stop.
Five other goalkeepers have been shortlisted alongside Nnadozie for the end-of-season award. The winner will be announced as part of the Barclays WSL end-of-season honours.
WSL Save of the Season Nominees
- Chiamaka Nnadozie (Brighton and Hove Albion)
- Ayaka Yamashita (Manchester City)
- Janina Leitzig (Leicester City)
- Daphne van Domselaar (Arsenal)
- Anneke Borbe (Arsenal)
- Elene Lete (London City Lionesses)
The Save That Started Everything
The Liverpool match in November was the moment Nnadozie announced herself to English women’s football in the most dramatic fashion. Brighton and Liverpool were locked at 1-1 deep in the second half when Fuka Nagano struck the ball cleanly from distance, aiming for the top corner. Nnadozie got across her goal, extended her full reach, and pushed the ball onto the crossbar to deny what looked a certain goal.
The stop earned her the WSL Save of the Month award for November 2025, her first monthly award of the season. She went on to win a second Save of the Month accolade in a later round, making her one of the standout performers in that category across the entire campaign. The Save of the Season nomination is the natural extension of that form. Fans following Nnadozie’s award season can check the Bet9ja YOHAIG promo code ahead of Brighton’s final WSL game.
A Season That Has Surpassed All Expectations
Nnadozie joined Brighton on a free transfer from Paris FC in the summer of 2025, making her debut in the WSL at the age of 25. In her first season in English women’s football, she has collected six clean sheets in 18 league appearances, earned two Save of the Month awards, frustrated Arsenal in a 1-1 draw midweek, and is now shortlisted for the season’s individual goalkeeping award.
She also sits one clean sheet behind the three joint leaders in the Golden Glove race: Manchester City’s Ayaka Yamashita, Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton, and Manchester United’s Phallon Tullis-Joyce, all on seven. Brighton’s final WSL game against Tottenham on May 16 gives her one last opportunity to match that total and potentially claim a share of the award. Those tracking her final-day Golden Glove push can follow the race at bet9japromotioncode.com.ng.
What the Nomination Represents
For Nigerian women’s football, Nnadozie’s emergence in the WSL this season has been one of the most significant storylines of the 2025/26 campaign. No Nigerian goalkeeper has previously won the WSL Save of the Season award. A nomination in her debut season puts her in the conversation for exactly that historic distinction.
The competition is strong. Yamashita won the WSL title with Manchester City this season and has been outstanding in a dominant side. Van Domselaar is a Dutch international who was previously Arsenal’s undisputed number one. Leitzig has been excellent in Leicester City’s first WSL season back in the top flight. Nnadozie is the only African goalkeeper on the shortlist, and the only goalkeeper representing a mid-table club rather than one of the established elite. Winning it would be the most unexpected individual goalkeeping achievement in WSL history. Super Falcons fans wanting to back Nigeria’s brightest keeper through the end of the season can get started with this Bet9ja promo code today.
An FA Cup Semi-Final Still to Come
Nnadozie’s season is not finished. Brighton face Liverpool in the Women’s FA Cup semi-final on Sunday, a fixture that gives her another chance to produce the kind of stop that earns awards and changes careers. Liverpool are one of the WSL’s most dangerous attacking sides. A strong performance at the semi-final stage, on top of everything already achieved this season, would cement her place as the story of the WSL’s 2025/26 campaign.
From Rivers Angels in Port Harcourt to Paris FC in France to this: a Save of the Season nomination, a Golden Glove race, an FA Cup semi-final, and the WSL’s best goalkeeper coaches all learning her name. Chiamaka Nnadozie’s debut English season has been extraordinary by any measure.
📌 Did You Know?
- Nnadozie began her career at Rivers Angels in Port Harcourt, one of Nigeria’s most decorated women’s clubs, before moving to Paris FC in France in January 2020 at the age of 19. She spent five years at the French club, winning the Coupe de France Feminine and making multiple appearances in the UEFA Women’s Champions League qualification rounds before joining Brighton in the summer of 2025.
- Fuka Nagano, whose shot Nnadozie tipped onto the crossbar in November, is a Japanese midfielder who joined Liverpool from Aston Villa earlier in the 2025/26 season. Nagano is known for her range of passing and willingness to shoot from distance, making the save all the more impressive given that the threat was not from a striker but from a midfielder arriving late into the box.
- Daphne van Domselaar, also on the Save of the Season shortlist, previously won the award in the 2023/24 season while at Aston Villa before her move to Arsenal. Her presence on the shortlist alongside Nnadozie gives the award an interesting Nigerian-Dutch rivalry element, given that both goalkeepers have represented clubs from outside the WSL’s traditional top four this season.
- Janina Leitzig, the Leicester City goalkeeper also shortlisted, is a German international who previously played in the German Frauen-Bundesliga. Her nomination represents Leicester City’s impact in their first WSL season since returning to the top flight, with Leitzig’s performances being central to the club avoiding an immediate relegation battle.
- Nnadozie won the Coupe de France Feminine with Paris FC in the 2024/25 season by saving two penalties in a shootout against Paris Saint-Germain in the final. The match went to penalties after a goalless draw over 90 minutes, with Nnadozie’s two crucial stops against one of the most decorated women’s clubs in French football history clinching the title for a side with a fraction of PSG’s resources.
- The Barclays WSL Save of the Season award was introduced in recent seasons as part of a broader expansion of individual awards in English women’s football. The award is voted on by a panel selected by the Football Association and WSL technical staff, rather than by fans or players, giving it a technical rather than popularity-driven credibility that mirrors how UEFA awards its Champions League Player of the Match honours.
- If Nnadozie keeps a clean sheet in Brighton’s final WSL game against Tottenham on May 16 and wins the Save of the Season award, she would complete a remarkable personal treble in her debut English season: two Save of the Month awards, a Golden Glove share, and the season’s best individual stop. No goalkeeper in their debut WSL season has previously won both the Save of the Season and contributed to a Golden Glove in the same campaign.
