Nnadozie Tops WSL Goalkeeping Chart In First Season
Chiamaka Nnadozie has closed her first English campaign at the very top of the goalkeeping charts, finishing the 2025/26 Barclays Women’s Super League with the highest save percentage of any goalkeeper in the division and confirming her arrival as one of the finest shot stoppers in world football. The Super Falcons number one, who joined Brighton and Hove Albion on a free transfer from Paris FC in July 2025, ended the season with a save percentage of 74.7, the best among all goalkeepers who made at least ten league appearances, according to official statistics published by the WSL on Monday.
The margin at the top was razor thin. Nnadozie edged Chelsea’s England international Hannah Hampton, who recorded 74.6 per cent, while Manchester United’s Phallon Tullis Joyce completed the top three on 73.6 per cent. That she outperformed goalkeepers at two of England’s wealthiest and most decorated women’s clubs, in her first season adjusting to a new league, gives the achievement its weight.
The underlying numbers tell the story of a goalkeeper who was busy and dependable in equal measure. Across 19 league matches, the 25 year old faced 83 shots on target and saved 62 of them, a tally of stops that ranked second in the entire division. She started 19 of Brighton’s 22 fixtures and logged 1,710 minutes under head coach Dario Vidosic, quickly settling as the club’s undisputed first choice. Her six clean sheets placed her joint fourth in the WSL, and she prevented an estimated 3.3 goals over the campaign, a figure that captures how often she kept Brighton in matches they might otherwise have lost.
Her importance was most visible against the strongest sides. All of Brighton’s early season defeats came against clubs occupying the top five, yet the Seagulls remained competitive throughout, and at the midpoint of the season Nnadozie was the club’s highest rated player on the FotMob index. The individual recognition followed. In December she claimed the WSL Save of the Month award for November after a spectacular fingertip stop denied Liverpool’s Fuka Nagano in a 1-1 draw at St Helens Stadium, a save so striking it was later shortlisted for the league’s Save of the Season prize.
Brighton’s campaign also carried them further in cup competition than ever before. The club reached its first Women’s FA Cup final, and at Wembley on May 31 Nnadozie produced six saves in a narrow defeat to Manchester City, a losing effort that nonetheless underlined her big occasion temperament. Earlier in the season, Brighton had also recorded a notable victory over City, the eventual champions, with Nnadozie central to the result.
The English season caps what has already been a decorated period for the goalkeeper. She was named CAF Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year for a third consecutive year, an award that has become almost a fixture on her mantelpiece, and she arrived in England already regarded as a penalty saving specialist. In the 2025 Coupe de France final she saved two spot kicks against Paris Saint Germain to help Paris FC lift the trophy, and in 2024 she became the first African player to be named goalkeeper of the season in France’s top flight. Before her European move, she spent four seasons at Rivers Angels, winning the Nigeria Women’s Premier League in 2019 and the Nigeria Women’s Cup three times, and her senior international debut came as far back as April 2018 against France.
The timing of this form could hardly be better for Nigeria. Nnadozie is currently in the Super Falcons camp in Morocco, where the reigning African champions are preparing to defend the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title they won in 2024, when they came from two goals down to beat hosts Morocco 3-2 in the final for a record extending tenth crown. Head coach Justine Madugu named her among three goalkeepers in a 25 player squad chasing an unprecedented eleventh title, alongside Portsmouth’s Comfort Erhabor and Abia Angels’ Fatima Oloko. Nigeria open their Group C campaign against debutants Malawi at the Al Madina Stadium in Rabat on July 28, before facing Zambia on August 1 and Egypt on August 5. The expanded 16 team tournament, which runs from July 26 to August 16, also doubles as Africa’s qualifying pathway for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, with the four semi finalists earning automatic places.
For a Super Falcons side that remains the only African nation to have appeared at every Women’s World Cup since 1991, going into a title defence with a goalkeeper freshly crowned the best in one of the world’s most demanding leagues is an advantage few rivals can match.