In brief
- Australian football star Sam Kerr is leaving London club Chelsea after more than six years.
- Kerr will end her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea’s all-time leading league scorer with 64 WSL goals.
Sam Kerr is set to depart Chelsea at the season’s end, concluding a remarkable and triumphant tenure in the Women’s Super League.
The club, a powerhouse in English football, disclosed on Friday that the captain of the Matildas will bid farewell after six and a half years when her contract concludes this summer. Her final match for the Blues is anticipated to be a heartfelt affair against Manchester United on Saturday.
“Naturally, there’s a touch of sadness,” Kerr remarked as she discussed her upcoming exit.
“Leaving Chelsea means saying goodbye to the club I’ve called home for so long, parting ways with my teammates and the fans,” she continued.
“Reflecting on my time at Chelsea for the last time fills me with happiness. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have played here for six years and for the numerous trophies we’ve claimed together.”
“What stands out most are the joyful memories, the fun times, and an overwhelming sense of pride,” she added.
The decision had been widely expected, with the 32-year-old reportedly snapped up by the ambitious NWSL franchise, Denver Summit, in the United States last month.
But Kerr will end her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea’s all-time leading league scorer with 64 WSL goals, while her 115 strikes in all competitions have put her just one behind Fran Kirby as the Blues’ all-time leading goalscorer.
So it could still be a fairytale end to her reign as the ‘Queen of Kingsmeadow’ if Kerr could go past Kirby’s mark with a double in her final match against United at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea women play their biggest matches.
Individual and team success went hand in hand for Kerr, who was twice the WSL’s Golden Boot winner as leading scorer and was voted second in the Ballon d’Or as the world’s top women’s player in 2023.
There were difficult times, too, none more so when Kerr was charged with racially aggravated harassment against a police officer following an incident in London in 2023, but was found not guilty 13 months later following a high-profile trial.
Kerr was also sidelined for 20 months after sustaining a knee ligament injury in January 2024, but it’s a measure of her quality that she returned this season to score her 100th Chelsea goal and, even though it took a long time for her to properly recover fitness, she still ended as top scorer with 16 goals in 29 matches.
Her form of late has offered glimpses of Kerr in her pomp, leading to suggestions Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor should do everything possible to keep her in the squad.
But the Blues have been strongly linked with Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw, who has supplanted the Australian as the deadliest striker in the WSL.
Married to American international Kristie Mewis and with the pair having baby son Jagger, Kerr is expected to announce she’s resuming her career in the US, where she was once the all-time leading scorer in the NWSL.
Paying tribute to Kerr, Chelsea said: “We thank Sam for her incredible contribution to our success on the pitch and sustained growth off it.”
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