Exclusive: Ahead of Gotham Return, Sam Kerr Says She’s Hungry for NWSL Records

Sam Kerr has some unfinished business in the National Women’s Soccer League. After six and a half seasons with WSL’s Chelsea, the decorated Australian striker, who still holds the NWSL record for all-time regular season goals, is back with Gotham FC.

“Ever since I left the NWSL there was always a desire to come back and play here—I didn’t win a whole lot on a team level,” Kerr says in an exclusive interview with Sports Illustrated. “With everything I’d achieved at Chelsea and the change that was going on there, it felt like it was the right time. There wasn’t really anywhere else I saw myself [at this point in my career] other than the NWSL.”

The 32-year-old now joins Gotham FC as a free agent with a contract through the 2030 season.

Kerr’s career in the NWSL began in 2013 where she played a season with the Western New York Flash. She joined Gotham, then called Sky Blue, in 2015 where she still holds the record for most regular-season goals for the club (28), putting her only one goal behind Esther for most club goals across all competitions.

In 2018, she left Sky Blue for the Chicago Red Stars where she became the first player to win three consecutive NWSL Golden Boots. In 2019, she departed the NWSL for Chelsea where she won five WSL titles, three FA cups and earned multiple Golden Boots and Player of the Year awards.

Sam Kerr — Kerr will return to the NWSL after leaving for Chelsea in 2019. | Courtesy of Gotham FC

“Bringing a player like Sam back to Gotham is one of the clearest validations of what we’re building as a club,” says Gotham president of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West. “I had the unfortunate experience of playing against her in this league, and I’ll never forget the game where she scored four goals against my team.

“There are very few players in the world who can take over a game the way Sam can, and she’s consistently proven why she’s one of a kind. The fact that she chose to return to Gotham speaks volumes about our ambition, the environment we’ve created, and the direction of this club.”

A Fresh Start in a Familiar League

Since Kerr left the NWSL nearly seven years ago, much has changed. The league has expanded from nine teams to 16, average attendance is on track to double and the cost for a team to enter the league has soared from about $2 million to over $200 million.

In particular, Gotham FC as an organization has seen a renaissance. From perennial last-place finishers with questionable club conditions to a world class organization attracting top international talent, the club is nearly unrecognizable from seven years ago. And while she is humble about it, Kerr played her own small part in helping this club turn it all around.

81' - Another goal for @SkyBlueFC's Sam Kerr, we are now all square at 2-2. #NJvKC pic.twitter.com/YJniNfvBzS
— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) July 9, 2017

In July 2018, Kerr played her first match against Sky Blue as a Chicago Red Star. There, she scored a hat trick against her former team, but the feat was a somber occasion for the record-breaking forward.

“If I’m honest I didn’t enjoy it… I wish things were better here and that I could stay. It just sucks that that’s the way it had to be,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “I’m just going to say the girls deserve better and leave it at that. These girls are great girls. They give everything for this club and this league and they just deserve better. I scored a hat trick, but I wasn’t myself today. I feel sick playing against these girls.”

It was the post-match quote heard around the league, spurring several players to comment on social media about Kerr’s decision to speak up, and Sky Blue’s supporter group Cloud 9 to make a statement urging the organization forward.

“When I spoke that night, I still remember it very vividly, I just spoke from the heart, because I cared about the players that were there, I cared about the players that were going through a little bit of a tough time,” Kerr says now, reflecting on that time. “I’m just happy that women’s football has grown so much that people now are calling the league, calling the teams world-class, and I think it’s where it deserves to be.”

From there, Gotham ownership took stock of the club’s situation.. It didn’t happen overnight, but by 2019, significant changes were in the works. By 2021, the team shed its Sky Blue name, rebranding to Gotham FC, moved away from Rutgers University to play home games at Red Bull Arena (now Sports Illustrated Stadium) and have since won two NWSL championships, an NWSL Challenge Cup and a Concacaf W Champions Cup. Now, Kerr is hoping to add her name to the rosters that keep bringing home the hardware.

Your voice matters, and we want you to know that we hear you. Let's work together to make this better for us all.#PushForward pic.twitter.com/kXnrOGnTgt
— Gotham FC (@GothamFC) July 9, 2018

“Gotham as a club has completely changed, and if I was going to come back to a club, it was to one that wants to win trophies,” Kerr says. “I think from when I last left the club, we definitely weren’t doing that, so that’s the most exciting thing to me about Gotham at the moment. They’re lifting trophies, have some of the best players in the world, and I think that’s what makes them so attractive at the moment—good coach, good players and winning trophies.”

Some of those top players include her former Chelsea teammates who have also made the leap across the pond to join the defending NWSL champs including Ann-Katrin Berger, Jess Carter, and Guro Reiten. The club has also seen the return of other former Sky Blue players like Savannah McCaskill and now-retired Kelley O’Hara.

The Decision to Return

Although Kerr was worried about returning to any club for which she previously played and what that might mean, the issues that plagued the Sky Blue of old were not a concerning factor in her decision. Instead, the time felt right to make her return to not only the NWSL, but to a club that essentially felt like a different place, and with a manager in Juan Carlos Amorós that impressed her and gave her belief in what the club is building toward.

Another contributing factor, if not the biggest, was the opinion of Kerr’s wife, Kristie Mewis. The two professional soccer players tied the knot in 2025 while Kerr finished her time at Chelsea. Mewis, who won the 2023 NWSL championship at Gotham, provided Kerr with a wealth of information as Kerr made her decision to join the NJ/NY side.

Sam Kerr with Sky Blue FC — Kerr (20) won the NWSL MVP award with Sky Blue FC in 2017. | Rich Barnes/Getty Images

“She had really good things to say about Juan, she got along with him really, really well,” Kerr says. “She loved New York City, she loved where she lived in Jersey and she had really good things to say about the city and the club. She said everyone was so lovely and welcoming, and that was something that was really important to me when I spoke to the club—I wanted to be around good people and have that family feel.”

As she prepares to join the club for the back-half of the season, Kerr will likely make her debut at Gotham’s Queens Classic at Citi Field. The team has already sold close to 30,000 tickets for the match, and it will be Kerr’s first opportunity to start defending and re-breaking her league records. While she currently still holds the record for regular-season goals, she now sits in fourth place for goals across all competitions (78) and will need to score five more to beat the record now set by Lynn Biyendolo (82).

“Lynn’s coming back from having a baby so I better get going, she’ll be catching me soon,” Kerr jokes. “But I’m still the [regular-season] record holder so they should be chasing me!”

As Kerr sees it, records are meant to be broken, and while she’s impressed with her records being broken in her absence, there’s definitely a bit of motivation to come back and seal her legacy.

“It’s always motivation, but I think I just want to score my first goal and be back playing in the league,” she says.

While Kerr won’t wade into whether the WSL or NWSL is the better league (“I actually don’t like this conversation because I think that it’s just different football,” she says), there are definitely some aspects of America that she’s looking forward to re-experiencing and some aspects of England that she will not miss.

“I loved living in London but the weather in the U.S.A is just so good,” Kerr says. “I can’t wait to be playing in the sun and warm most of the year.”

On the pitch, she’s excited to be back in the league. Kerr’s already begun to reminisce about her incredible memories from her first time here, and she says she’s ready to see old friends and make new ones in this second iteration of her American dream.

“I’m just excited to get playing and be back in the league,” she says. “I feel like a rookie all over again.”

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