Womens Football
‘I love scoring goals’: meet Shekiera Martinez, the striker taking WSL by storm
After 10 goals in 12 league games earned West Ham player a rising star award she talks dogs, sleep and her football dream
Shekiera Martinez’s family were sceptical when she told them, aged eight, she wanted to start playing football. She was one of four girls and a boy in her family, growing up in Germany, and one of her older sisters had by then given up the game. “I wanted to start but when I told my mum, she firstly said: ‘No, you won’t play for long, you’ll be like your sister,’” Martinez recalls. “And so then I gave her a promise that I would play for longer than my sister.”
Sixteen years later, the West Ham striker has certainly kept that promise. After progressing through her local boys’ team, playing for Eintracht Frankfurt for six years and thriving at youth level for Germany, Martinez most recently collected the Women’s Super League’s Rising Star award for the 2024-25 season after a breakthrough second half of the campaign in which she scored 10 times in 12 WSL games.
This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is back to its twice-weekly format, delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.
Denver Summit hire former Man City, NYC FC manager Nick Cushing as head coach
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NWSL expansion team set to debut in 2026
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Cushing returns to US after time in MLS
Nick Cushing, the former Manchester City women and NYC FC manager, has been appointed as the first head coach of the expansion National Women’s Soccer League team Denver Summit FC, who will play their inaugural NWSL season in 2026.
Cushing, who won the 2016 English top-flight title during his first spell in charge of Manchester City, will begin work with Denver immediately, as they prepare for NWSL life after it was announced last December that they had been awarded a franchise spot as part of the division’s expansion to 16 clubs for 2026. Boston Legacy FC are also joining the NWSL as a new outfit.
The Colorado club announced its new name and unveiled its crest and kit colour in July. They have been backed by high-profile investors, including the American skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin, who is from Colorado, and they have plans to move to a new 14,500-seat purpose-built stadium in 2028.
Cushing won six major trophies, including two Women’s FA Cups, three League Cups, and Manchester City’s sole women’s league title to date during his six-year spell at the helm of the English club. He left in 2020 to take up an assistant role at MLS side New York City FC, where he was elevated to head coach in 2022. He returned to Man City as the Women’s Super League side’s interim head coach in March 2025, overseeing a fourth-placed finish after the sacking of Gareth Taylor.
It is understood the chance to return to life and work in the United States with his family was something the 40-year-old particularly wanted, preferring this unique proposition from Denver over interest from other English clubs.
Cushing said: “Denver Summit FC’s commitment to building a world-class soccer organisation really inspired me. We have a passionate, committed fanbase and we have to put a team on the field that replicates that. Our team will play an attacking form of the game that excites our stadium and makes things difficult for our opponents. We want to create a winning team as well as a great experience for all of Colorado.”
Prior to Cushing’s appointment, the new club named Curt Johnson as their general manager. The former North Carolina Courage GM added: “In order to be successful right away, you need people that have experienced environments like this, have built organisations, and have had success. Nick brings world-class experience, a passion for player development, and a tactical vision that will excite Summit supporters. He’s won major trophies and is the right leader to guide us into our first season and beyond.”
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Despite the Scottish Premiership title race being more predictable than Football Daily at a bottomless brunch, fitba has never been short of drama. Who can forget Ross County deleting their own website, Kirk Broadfoot suffering facial burns after microwaving an egg and former Hearts manager Robbie Neilson trying to give journalists the slip as he left the club’s training ground by sending out a decoy (sports scientist John Hill) to the car park in a Robbie Neilson mask. Edinburgh, very much the second city in Scotland when it comes to football, still has one of the game’s finest rivalries between two grand old clubs, Hearts and Hibernian. Each have had their moments in recent derbies: last year Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland celebrated scoring a penalty by catching and eating a pie thrown by a Hibs supporter. In March, Jack Iredale scored a screamer to win the derby for Hibs. The post-match celebrations at Easter Road featured one of the finest ever renditions of Sunshine on Leith, a song sung with so much feeling that it left some Hibs players in tears. And who can blame them? If you get goosebumps watching that song, imagine what it must be like to come from that corner of Scotland, stand on that terrace and sing those lyrics in front of your victorious team. Magic.
A couple of friends had come over to see me, we were chatting, and suddenly they said they couldn’t understand what I was saying. My speech was slurring. I had gone for a walk that morning and felt wobbly, just very lethargic. I was sapped of any energy and a couple of times I felt as though I might stumble but I didn’t” – in an extract from a new book, the former Portsmouth, Leeds and Exeter defender Noel Blake talks about the emotional and physical battle of recovering from a stroke.
Celta Vigo signing Athletic Bilbao youngster Luis Bilbao and signing Bryan Zaragoza are yet more disappointing nails in coffin of nominative determinism. Now, it’s just me and a lad I knew at school called Gareth Thickett who failed all his exams that are keeping up the good fight …” – Noble Francis.
I rarely agree with Dr Tottenham, but he’s right … it will be greatly appreciated when he leaves” – Chris Brown.
The European Cup winner bringing women’s football dream to Monaco
Former Italy striker Marco Simone has big hopes for new club Monaco United, even though they will start in the fifth tier
Women’s football in France has always been an important marker point in Europe, mainly through Lyon’s record-breaking Champions League success. The club have been pushed along domestically by Paris Saint-Germain but a shift is taking place, with Paris FC continuing to develop and Lens and Marseille promoted to the top division for the 2025-26 season.
One place lacking a professional team in the women’s pyramid is Monaco but that could change before long, and not necessarily through AS Monaco. Monaco United launch this season and although they will begin in the fifth tier, they are founded and coached by Marco Simone, a four-time Serie A winner and two-time Champions League winner as a player with Milan.