Sam Kerr

Sam Kerr (born September 10, 1993, Fremantle, Western Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player who was named captain of the Matildas, the women’s national team, in 2019. The star striker later became the all-time leading scorer for the team. Kerr was also a standout in professional clubs in the United States, England, and Australia.

Early life and career

Kerr was born the youngest of four siblings in a family with a long tradition of athletics. Her father, Roger Kerr, was born in Kolkata to a featherweight boxer for Bengal and a mother who played basketball. After moving to Perth as a child, he played Australian rules football, a contact sport with similarities to rugby. He became a professional player with the West Australian Football League and the South Australian National Football League and later a coach in the WAFL. His eldest son, Daniel Kerr, Sam Kerr’s brother, also became a professional athlete, playing Australian rules football. Meanwhile, Sam Kerr’s mother, Roxanne Kerr, was the daughter and niece of players in the WAFL. Therefore, Sam Kerr naturally played Australian rules football while growing up. Mounting injuries from competing in the sport, however, led her to take up association football at age 12. In 2008, after several years of junior-level play, she joined the Perth Glory football club, which is part of the W-League, Australia’s highest division of professional women’s football. That same year she became a member of both the under-17 and under-20 Australian national teams.

The Matildas

At age 15 Kerr debuted with the Matildas as a substitute in a match against Italy (2009). The following year she played in her first major tournament, the Asian Cup, in China. She helped the Matildas secure their first-ever title in that contest, scoring the opening goal in the team’s victory over North Korea in the final. In 2011, at age 17, Kerr made her first appearance at the Women’s World Cup, where she started in two matches for Australia.

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A series of injuries in the lead-up to the 2015 World Cup, however, slowed Kerr’s rise and threatened to prevent her from returning to the tournament. She managed to recover and started in all five of the matches the Matildas played that year. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she notched her first goal on the world stage during group play. Kerr helped the Australian team advance to the quarterfinals before the team was eliminated by Brazil. In 2018 Kerr again was a driving force for the Matildas during their run to the Asian Cup final, but this time the Australian squad narrowly lost the title match to Japan.

In 2019 Kerr was chosen as Australia’s captain ahead of the Women’s World Cup. At the tournament she not only scored her first World Cup goal, but she netted all four of Australia’s goals in the team’s 4–1 group-stage victory over Jamaica. Her four goals were only one shy of the Women’s World Cup individual single-game scoring record shared by Americans Michelle Akers and Alex Morgan. The win over Jamaica sent Australia into the round of 16, where the team was knocked out by Norway in a match decided by penalty kicks. Kerr nonetheless maintained her scoring streak when she netted 6 of the 11 goals scored by the Australian team at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic). Her final goal of the Olympics came in Australia’s loss to the United States in the bronze medal match. The goal was the 48th of her career with the national team and gave Kerr the all-time record for most goals scored for the Matildas.

Clubs in the United States, England, and Australia

In addition to playing for the Matildas, Kerr divided her time between the W-League and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), the top level of U.S. women’s soccer. In the NWSL she had stints with the Western New York Flash (2013–14), the New Jersey-based Sky Blue FC (2015–17), and the Chicago Red Stars (2018–19). While playing for the Sky Blue in 2017, she became the NWSL’s all-time leading scorer when she recorded her 34th career goal during a match against FC Kansas City. Kerr was named the NWSL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2017 and 2019 seasons. Meanwhile, during her time with the Perth Glory in the W-League, she twice received the league’s Julie Dolan Award for best player, earning the honour in both the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons. In 2019 Kerr netted her 64th career goal in W-League play, becoming the all-time leading scorer in that league as well.

Toward the end of 2019 Kerr signed with Chelsea FC of England’s top-division Football Association’s Women’s Super League (WSL). She made her debut with the club early the next year. By the following season (2020–21) Kerr had become Chelsea’s main scoring threat. She helped lead Chelsea to the WSL title that season, scoring 21 goals. That tally earned her the Golden Boot award as the WSL’s top scorer. In 2022 Kerr was awarded the Order of Australia medal in recognition of her services to the sport of football.

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