Sam Kerr Becomes The First Non-European Player To Score 50 WSL Goals

Australian Sam Kerr today became the ninth woman, and the first from outside Europe, to score 50 goals in the English Women’s Super League and in doing so achieved the rare distinction of reaching a half-century of goals in the top-flight leagues on three different continents.

Kerr’s 50 goals have come in just 62 Women’s Super League games in Europe, she has also previously scored over 70 league goals in the Australian league, within the Asian confederation, during her time at Sydney FC and two spells at Perth Glory and also in North America during her time at Western New York Flash, Sky Blue and Chicago Red Stars.

In spite of having left the United States in 2019, Kerr remains the all-time leading goalscorer in the National Women’s Super League (NWSL) with 77 regular season goals, 18 clear of the second-placed Christine Sinclair. When she left the Australian W-League the same year, Kerr was also the all-time leading goalscorer in that competition with 70 regular season goals, although she has since been overtaken by her former international strike partner, Michelle Heyman

Kerr is only the second foreign player to score 50 WSL goals after Dutchwoman Vivianne Miedema who achieved the feat in her first 50 games. Miedema remains the league’s all-time goalscorer on 78 goals, but is currently out injured for the remainder of the season with a rupture to her anterior cruciate ligament. Kerr is sure to have closed that gap considerably by the time Miedema returns to the field.

Also above Kerr on the WSL all-time goalscoring list are former team-mate Bethany England (62), the retired Ellen White (61), current team-mate Fran Kirby (60), new Aston Villa signing Jordan Nobbs (56), Arsenal’s Beth Mead (55) and Kim Little (54) and Manchester United’s Nikita Parris (52). None except Miedema, have matched Kerr’s exceptional strike-rate. Indeed, since she joined Chelsea in January 2020, she has scored more goals than any other player in the Women’s Super League.

In total, she has now scored a staggering 85 goals for Chelsea in just 107 appearances for the club. More than that, Kerr’s goals have often been decisive for her team. In her three seasons at the club she has won eight trophies, including the Women’s Super League in three successive campaigns. On the final matchday of last season, with her team trailing at home to Manchester United and in danger of losing the league title to Arsenal, Kerr produced two outstanding second-half volleys which turned the game around and won the title.

A week later at Wembley Stadium, Kerr scored two goals, including the extra-time winner against Manchester City, in the FA Women’s Cup final for the second year in a row. Last month, her late goal at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal, salvaged a critical point for the champions from a game in which they had generally under-performed.

Last season, Kerr also became the first player to ever score 20 league goals in two different WSL seasons, securing the Golden Boot as the top goalscorer in the league on each occasion, to add to the two successive Golden Boots she won in the Australian W-League and three she achieved in successive seasons playing in the NWSL.

Her goal today took her to a staggering 199 career goals in the 282 league games she has played in the three countries. Despite regular making the shortlists for various international awards, Kerr is yet be voted as the world’s leading player in any of them, something that continually perplexes her many fans.

Speaking to the BBC in January, Kerr emphasized that the honor she craves more than anything is the one she is in control of. “The most important individual award for me is the Golden Boot, because at the end of the day, if I’m winning that then the team’s probably winning the title. I’m putting my team in a good position.”

“For people to think that I am in the top twenty or top ten, whatever it is, female footballers in the world, that’s a massive honor for me. I come to training every day and I see people that have never made that list that out-trained me every day. No matter what I do, some people will love it, no matter what I do, some people won’t love it.”