A lot can change in seven years, and new Gotham FC forward Sam Kerr knows this well. In 2013, the then 19-year-old Australian striker joined the brand new National Women’s Soccer League. Kerr scored six goals in that inaugural season, and by the end of her stint in the United States’ top domestic league, Kerr scored a league record 77 goals. Those goals earned two MVP honors and three consecutive Golden Boot awards.
It was not all fun and smashed records for Kerr, however. In that same era, Kerr played for five different head coaches across three different teams. While she made two NWSL Championship finals, Kerr didn’t have a goal in either of the two shutouts. At the end of the 2019 NWSL season, after Kerr’s Chicago Red Stars lost 4-0 to the NC Courage in the NWSL Championship, Kerr left the United States altogether to join Chelsea Football Club in London, England.
The time away was good for Kerr. Under manager Emma Hayes for five years, Chelsea and Kerr were a force. The Blues of London won six Women’s Super League titles in that time, with Kerr playing in five of those seasons. Chelsea did not win a Champions League title but still added four FA Cup and four League Cup trophies. Throw in two WSL Golden Boot honors and a handful of footballer and player of the year awards at the team and league level, and Kerr’s time away made a dangerous player that much more lethal.
Across all competitions, Kerr scored 116 goals for Chelsea, which put her tied atop the club’s history alongside England international Fran Kirby for the club’s top goalscorer in history.
On top of that on-field success, Kerr exhibited true sportsmanship with Australia at the 2021 Summer Olympics, entered into a relationship with former NWSL and USWNT midfielder Kristie Mewis, got married and is now the mother of Jagger, Kerr and Mewis’ son. That move over the Atlantic Ocean was a massive success.
Fast forward to this week. Nearly seven years after Kerr left the United States for Chelsea Football Club of the Women’s Super League, Gotham FC announced Kerr’s stateside return.
“I was moving around every two years, and I didn’t want to do that this time. I wanted to commit to somewhere, and put roots down somewhere, and allow myself to get comfortable in the league, get comfortable with the team that I’m in,” Kerr told reporters.
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A lot can change for a league in seven years, too.
During Kerr’s absence, the NWSL had a reckoning. Coaches linked to player abuse, which included Kerr’s former Chicago Red Stars coach, Rory Dames, left the league. Players spoke out, fans supported them and as the NWSL lost bad actors, the league was firmly part of the rise of support for women’s sports. Kansas City returned to the league, Utah left and returned and expansion stretched the nine-team league at the end of 2019 to 16 in 2026, with two more on the way in 2028.
Chicago was not the only former Kerr home address impacted by the league’s noticeable turnaround. When Kerr played for Sky Blue FC, reports surfaced of no running water or working toilets at the team’s training ground while players took ice baths in trash cans. The team tried to rectify the situation with a single-use RV at the training ground so there was at least water and a flushable toilet. In hindsight, leaving for an established organization like Chelsea made sense.
In 2026, Sky Blue FC is now Gotham FC, and has been since the start of the 2021 season. After new investors brought in a renewed sense of purpose for the club, the improved working environment and new investment turned a one-win club in the 2018 season into a two-time NWSL Champion in the last three years.
Simply put, arguably the most successful team in the NWSL has added arguably the best No. 9 on the planet.
“One of the main reasons I joined Gotham was because I felt like it was the closest competitiveness to Chelsea, that’s a club that is always aspiring to win something, win the game, win whatever trophy they can,” Kerr told reporters. “I haven’t lost my competitive or winning edge yet, and that was one of the main parts of me joining Gotham.”
Kerr’s lone on-field trial at Chelsea came in January 2024. The striker tore her ACL in training and after 10 months of pain, doctors saw an issue with the initial repair of the ligament which sat Kerr out for nearly two years. For the NWSL fan who occasionally watches headlines from the WSL, this injury could cause some hesitancy with a Gotham contract for Kerr through the 2030 season, but when Kerr returned, it showed that the Australian team captain is not slowing down. Over 18 appearances in WSL play during the 25-26 campaign, Kerr averaged .91 goals per 90 minutes, which is better than any single season Kerr had in her first NWSL stint.
The returning NWSL goal scoring leader still has a lot to give at 31-years old, according to Kerr. In that final Chelsea season, Kerr called some of her goals the best of her career, specifically the winning goal in her final game with Chelsea. On May 16, 2026, against Manchester United, midfielder Lauren James sent a cross inside the 18-yard box and Kerr showed why multiple NWSL teams reached out to her in the WSL offseason for a chance to sign the historic star. As the ball curled into its landing spot, roughly eight yards away from goal, Kerr intercepted the ball and one-touched it past the diving keeper.
Even so, Kerr stressed that she is not walking into the Gotham FC locker room and taking over from day one. “I just want to be like any other player, competing with spots, competing for time on the pitch,” Kerr told reporters. “When I was here previously, I was just a young kid, I was striving to be the best, and I come back with a lot of experience and a lot of trophies under my belt, but I think this league has changed so much since I’ve been gone that it would be naive of me to think that I was going to come back in and have the same sort of, I guess, impact straight away.”
Offensively, Gotham could use the firepower. The defending NWSL playoff champions average a goal per game, which is the fifth lowest in the league. Despite this, the attack does not have to do as much when the team leads the league in allowing less than half a goal per match. With that said, the Gotham attack is young but is rife with promise. The side’s leading goal scorer Jaedyn Shaw is part of now UWSNT manager Emma Hayes’ rotation and rookie Jordynn Dudley put on a show for Columbus fans at the Challenge Cup on Friday.
While Kerr is staying humble about her ability and returning to the league with an earned quiet confidence, the front office sees the addition of another all-star on a team of all-stars.
“If Sam’s on your team, you’re going to win games, you’re going to score goals, and for us that’s an important, powerful statement on top of a roster that’s already really packed with very exciting talent,” president of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West told reporters. “I hope we’re going to see lots of backflips out there.”
Since Gotham brought in the forward through the 2030 season, there will be long-term changes to the frontline of the New York/New Jersey side. One already happened with the retirement of journeywoman striker Katie Lampson, but Averbuch West is not worried about how Kerr’s addition will impact the team’s young core up front. While there are only so many minutes and spots on an 11-player team on the field, Gotham is a side full of USWNT leaders, from defenders Tierna Davidson and Emily Sonnett to midfielder Rose Lavelle. Kerr named Lavelle as someone she especially wanted to play with on her new team.
“Our players push each other and coach each other, probably more than anyone from the outside does,” Averbuch West told reporters. “For a player like Jordynn (Dudley), obviously extremely exciting player with a really bright future in the game, the more she can learn and develop alongside experienced professionals, that the better for her, and she has a wonderful mindset when it comes to that.”
With all of this change, there is an air of familiarity. The Big Apple is a far cry from the Sky Blue FC days, but Kerr joined a side full of former teammates with a history with the club. Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, center back Jess Carter and midfielder Guro Reiten, who Kerr spent her entire career at Chelsea with, are all alongside the new old NWSL striker. Kerr also played alongside the club’s captain, Davidson for a short stint in Chicago.
That makes for a slightly easier transition back into the league for Kerr, which is great news for Gotham FC. Not as great of news for the rest of the NWSL.
