LONDON (AP) — Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes was voted as footballer of the year in England by soccer writers, while Manchester City striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw won the women's award for a second time on Friday.
Fernandes captured the accolade handed out by the Football Writers’ Association near the end of a season when he has made 19 assists for United in the Premier League — one off the record — and helped the team get back in the Champions League.
The Portugal midfielder finished ahead of Arsenal's Declan Rice and Manchester City's Erling Haaland, taking 45% of the votes from the FWA membership of more than 900.
He is the first Man United player since Wayne Rooney in 2010 to win the award, which has been running since 1947 to make it the oldest individual soccer award in the world.
Shaw beat Arsenal’s Alessia Russo and Chelsea's Lauren James to the award after leading Man City to its first Women's Super League title in 10 years with a division-high 19 goals in 21 games.
Shaw also won it in 2024.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Manchester City's Khadija Shaw looks dejected after missing a chance at goal , during the Women's Super League soccer match between Manchester City and Liverpool, in Manchester, England, Sunday May 3, 2026. (Richard Sellers/PA via AP)
Manchester United's Bruno Fernande[ reacts during the Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Brentford in Manchester, England, Monday, April 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
COHUTTA, Ga. (AP) — The town council in a small north Georgia mountain community called a special meeting Friday evening to discuss reinstating the police department after the mayor fired the chief and all the officers.
The notice for the meeting, posted outside the Cohutta Town Hall, says the council will also consider a request for the mayor's “immediate resignation.”
Another sign posted earlier this week in the town of about 930 people announced that the police department had been dissolved “per Mayor Ron Shinnick.” It told people who need help to call a non-emergency county number.
The jobs of the chief and about 10 officers were terminated as of Wednesday morning. Exact reasons haven’t been shared publicly, and townspeople are hoping to get some answers at Friday’s meeting.
Shinnick said he took action because of some comments officers posted on social media. The now-former Sgt. Jeremy May said it involved a complaint that he and other officers had raised about the mayor's wife Pam Shinnick, who had served as the town clerk.
“This all comes to personal vendetta from the mayor, and I wholeheartedly believe that,” May told WRCB-TV. “We took a stand for transparency, and in result, every one of them has lost their jobs.”
The now-former Cohutta Police Chief Greg Fowler told WRCB that he couldn't comment in detail as the officers were clearing out the police department and removing equipment from the building this week. The mayor told the station he's not sure what will happen next.
Phone calls and emails left Friday by The Associated Press for Shinnick and the town's attorney were not immediately returned.
With no police officers working, the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office said in a brief statement that deputies will help the townspeople if they need it. Cohutta, just south of the Tennessee line, is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.
Mayor Ron Shinnick, back, and members of the Cohutta Police Department look on as lawyer Bryan Rayburn speaks at Cohutta Town Hall in Cohutta, Ga. on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Matt Hamilton/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
Mayor Ron Shinnick speaks at Cohutta Town Hall in Cohutta, Ga. on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Matt Hamilton/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
