Sam Kerr: 'Gotham has come full circle. It now has Chelsea's winning culture' – The Athletic

Sam Kerr is one of the greatest goalscorers in women’s football and is returning to the NWSL after signing a years-long contract with Gotham FC.

Her second debut for the club, following her arrival from Chelsea, is still two weeks away. The 32-year-old is itching to play.

“I have full confidence that I can still play to the best of my ability, if not better,” the Australia star said on Thursday during her first media availability with Gotham.

“I’ve scored some of the best goals I’ve ever scored this year. That shows that, if I’m put in the park with the right people around me, and the right coach to coach me, I can still get the best of my ability. I’m annoyed that I can’t play till the 14th — I was on a good little run. As a striker, you just want to keep going.”

Kerr’s return to Gotham, where she played from 2015 to 2017 when the team was called Sky Blue, could not come at a better time for her or the 2025 NWSL champions.

Kerr was on a tear in her final games with Chelsea, where she spent six and a half seasons, earned 12 trophies, scored 115 goals and did countless backflips, her signature celebration. Gotham announced her signing on Monday, putting an end to nearly two months of speculation about where the striker would land following her exit from Chelsea, which was announced in May.

Gotham, even with its depth of attacking players, has only scored 12 goals across its first 11 games — making Kerr the perfect signing as they continue their push to become the first back-to-back NWSL champions since North Carolina Courage in 2019. Gotham sits fifth in the NWSL.

“One of the main parts of me joining Gotham, is that I wanted to win stuff and be a part of a winning culture. I wanted to be coached by a coach (Juan Carlos Amoros) who loves to win,” Kerr said. “Gotham is probably the most similar club to Chelsea in their desires. It helps they have some of the best players in the league.”

Kerr named U.S. national team players Rose Lavelle, Jaedyn Shaw, Emily Sonnett and Midge Purce as those she is excited to play with and remembers playing with Tierna Davidson while at the Chicago Red Stars, where she played two seasons before moving to Europe. She is eager to reunite with her former Chelsea teammate Guro Reiten, who signed with Gotham this year.

Kerr still holds the all-time regular-season goalscoring record in the NWSL with 77. She spent three seasons at Sky Blue when the NWSL was only a few years old.

In her final season with Sky Blue, she won the NWSL Golden Boot and was the league’s Most Valuable Player. Kerr long held the record for most goals scored across all competitions, which was only broken in 2024 by Lynn Biyendolo, while she was a player at Gotham.

“To bring Sam back to the club is a huge statement as we push to become perennial contenders for NWSL trophies and as one of the top global brands in the women’s game,” Yael Averbuch West, Gotham’s president of soccer operations, said. “Sam could have played for any club in the world and she chose Gotham, it’s an incredible honor.

“She’s one of those players who galvanizes the people around her… 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.”

Gotham have one of the most competitive rosters in the NWSL under the limitations of the $3.7 million salary cap and has learned to be creative to recruit some of the world’s best players. While the High Impact Player rule has helped clubs sign top American players from Europe, including Cat Macario and Lindsey Heaps, Kerr did not qualify for HIP funds.

NWSL player salaries are not public. However, a player like Kerr is likely to be among the highest-paid on any roster. Her contract’s length offers stability, which Kerr said was important when deciding her next move. She spoke with all clubs interested, but knew the NWSL was the league she wanted to play in.

“Every club that I spoke to impressed me, and that made it a hard decision,” Kerr said, referring to other NWSL teams. “Gotham just stood out, and a lot of credit has to go to Yael, because she did a lot of work. It took a long, long time, because it was such a big move, and I really had to think hard about if I wanted to leave Chelsea. My agent (and) Yael will tell you that it took a lot of talking — I took it down to the wire.”

Kerr made her final decision by early May. Averbuch West began envisioning Kerr’s return to Gotham in the winter, six months before the end of her contract at Chelsea. “I had the crazy vision that I wanted to bring her back to Gotham,” Averbuch West said, with a laugh. “In speaking with her agent, I said, ‘I’m going to find a way to do this’.” After months of back and forth, with lots of phone calls and meetings, the two sides reached a mutual agreement.

It helped that Kerr was able to get first-hand references of Gotham, Averbuch West said. She is married to Kristie Mewis, who won the 2023 NWSL Championship with the team. Mewis and Gotham agreed to mutually part ways that December, when Mewis joined West Ham United in the Women’s Super League, bringing her closer to Kerr. Kerr has former Chelsea teammates at the club, Ann-Katrin Berger, Jess Carter and Reiten.

While the club was in talks with Kerr, Gotham was too with Reiten. The initial plan was for Reiten to sign in the summer, but the trade was sped up. That deal was announced in March, and, during an introductory press conference in April, Averbuch West said she joked with Reiten, telling her, “I hope you like it, because you have very, very important friends.” It’s clear one of those friends was Kerr.

Gotham competed in the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in February, after winning the NWSL Championship in late November, and had a brief offseason. It kept its roster largely the same over the winter to maintain momentum.

In recent months, however, the club has traded defender and 2025 Rookie of the Year Lilly Reale to Boston Legacy in exchange for $350,000 in allocation money and $50,000 in intraleague transfer funds. Veteran forward Katie Lampson retired from professional soccer on Tuesday, which opened more room for Kerr.

“We view the salary cap like a competitive weapon,” Averbuch West said. “We are relentless in finding ways, given the rules, whether it’s the cap itself, the high impact player rule, all the league rules — (we ask ourselves) ‘how can we optimize and pack the most talent into a roster?’ As we continue to evolve our roster, not everyone can come along for the journey.”

While Averbuch West did not share financial details about Kerr’s deal, she said, “Sam could have played at any club in the world she wanted to, and we don’t take that lightly. It’s about making an offer that shows respect to the player and getting creative about what we do.”

Kerr will work her way into the team, while re-adjusting to the NWSL, which is far more competitive than it was when she last played in it.

“I was just a young kid striving to be the best — I come back with a lot of experience and trophies,” Kerr said. “This league has changed so much, it would be naive to think I was going to come back in and have the same sort of impact straight away.”

She will join training as soon as she is cleared by the league and medical staffs, the club said. However, she can only be added to the roster when the transfer window opens on July 14. Averbuch West joked the club has the paperwork ready to submit by 12:01.

Kerr is a traditional No 9, like Esther Gonzalez, who signed with Gotham after winning the 2023 World Cup with Spain. She was key in helping the team lift their first NWSL Championship. Averbuch West said the club has spoken openly with both players.

“We are setting everyone up for success, and it’s not one player’s success at the expense of others,” Averbuch West said. “I don’t envy Juan and our coaches for having to crack the code on this puzzle.”

For Averbuch West, the key to balancing a roster filled with so much talent is recruiting players who can play in various positions. Given that Gotham regularly plays more matches than most teams in the NWSL, player availability and positional depth is crucial.

“The adaptability of our players and the volume of games we have means that you guys are going to see different combinations,” Averbuch West said, “but you are going to see all of the top talent on the field together, that’s the objective.”

Kerr is returning to a club that has completely evolved. The team has won two NWSL championships in three years, is on the verge of building its first training facility, and is rumored to be relocating to play its home games at Etihad Park, the new home of Major League Soccer’s New York City FC set to open next summer. Kerr, whose contract runs through 2030, will be there for all of it.

Kerr is likely to make her Gotham debut at the Queens Classic at Citi Field against the Washington Spirit on July 15. The club is hoping for a sellout of 42,000, with 29,000 tickets sold already. It will break the record for the highest-attended women’s sporting event in New York City, which was in 2023 when 28,144 fans witnessed Coco Gauff’s win at the U.S. Open Women’s Singles Final.

This couldn’t be further from the club Kerr knew. Her time at Sky Blue ended after she was traded to Chicago. In her first game against them, she scored a hat-trick and gave a post-game interview that unleashed a sea of change. She simply said the team “deserve better.”

“This is the type of stuff we were fighting for — to play in front of sold-out stadiums with the best facilities, with the best players, with wages that we deserved,” Kerr said. “I feel like this was like a full-circle moment, and there’s so many people that have done so many amazing things over the last six years, while I’ve been gone, that have allowed me to come back.

“It’s amazing where the league is at and I feel lucky that my first game coming back is at Citi Field with a full stadium. Hopefully, it sets me up for a nice future here.”