Sam Kerr has returned to the National Women’s Soccer League, signing a contract with NJ/NY Gotham FC that runs through the 2030 season. The 32-year-old Australian striker joins the reigning NWSL champions as a free agent after her contract with Chelsea expired, marking a homecoming to the club where she began her professional career in the United States.
Kerr’s previous stint in the NWSL, which stretched from 2015 to 2019, established her as the league’s most devastating goalscorer. She remains the NWSL’s all-time regular-season leader with 77 goals, a record she built while playing for Sky Blue FC — the club that later rebranded as Gotham FC — from 2015 to 2017, and later for the Chicago Red Stars from 2018 to 2019. During those three seasons with the Red Stars, Kerr won the NWSL Golden Boot in consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019), a feat no other player has matched. She also claimed the league’s MVP award twice, in 2017 and 2019, becoming the first player to win the honour on multiple occasions.
Her return to Gotham FC comes at a moment of remarkable transformation for the club. Under the leadership of Yael Averbuch West, Gotham FC’s president of soccer operations and a former NWSL player who was the founding president of the NWSL Players Association, the team went from finishing bottom of the league in 2022 to winning the NWSL Championship in 2023 and again in 2025. The club also secured the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup in 2024 and achieved its most successful regular season in club history in 2024. Averbuch West described Kerr as “one of the defining players of her generation and a game-changing talent” whose “winning mentality, relentless competitiveness and ability to decide matches in an instant make her one of the most impactful players in the game”. She added that bringing Kerr back was “a landmark moment for our club”.
Kerr’s move back to the NWSL is her third spell in the league. She made her senior debut for Australia, the Matildas, in 2009 at the age of 15 and has since become the nation’s all-time leading scorer among men or women with 75 goals in 141 appearances, surpassing the previous record held by Tim Cahill (51 goals). She captained the Matildas to the semi-finals of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which Australia co-hosted with New Zealand.
Six and a half trophy-laden years at Chelsea
Before returning to the NWSL, Kerr spent six and a half seasons at Chelsea FC, where she amassed 116 goals in all competitions, tying the club’s all-time leading scorer Fran Kirby. She won five consecutive Women’s Super League titles, three FA Cups, and three League Cups, establishing herself as a central figure in Chelsea’s domestic dominance. Kerr is widely considered one of the best strikers in the world and is the only player to have won a Golden Boot in three different leagues: the NWSL, the Women’s Super League, and the Australian W-League.
Her final season at Chelsea was marked by a significant anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury sustained in January 2024, which kept her out of action for approximately 20 months. She made her return to the pitch in September 2025, scoring her 100th goal for Chelsea on her comeback match and finishing the 2025/26 season as the team’s top scorer with 17 goals across all competitions. Kerr also won the WSL Golden Boot twice during her time in London.
Gotham FC’s current roster already includes several players familiar to Kerr from her Chelsea days: German goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger and England defender Jess Carter. The squad also features Spanish striker Esther González, who won the 2023 World Cup with Spain, and United States international Rose Lavelle, a World Cup and Olympic gold medal winner. The club is scheduled to add Kerr in July, pending international transfer clearance. Due to her recent injury history, Kerr is not eligible for the NWSL’s High Impact Player Rule.
Kerr’s return to the league coincides with a period of expansion across the NWSL, which is set to grow to 16 teams by 2026. Boston Legacy FC and Denver Summit FC will join in 2026, with an additional team to be added in 2028.
