"Lynn's coming back from having a baby so I better get going," Sam Kerr says with a laugh. "But I'm still the record holder — they should be chasing me."
That's the energy Kerr is bringing back to the NWSL. Six and a half years at Chelsea, five WSL titles, three FA Cups, and a stack of individual awards later, the 32-year-old Australian is returning to Gotham FC on a free transfer — signed through the 2030 season. Unfinished business doesn't quite cover it.
Why Gotham, why now
Kerr's history with this club goes deeper than most fans remember. She played for the team when it was still Sky Blue — scored 28 regular-season goals, still the club record — then left in 2018 partly because conditions at the club were, in her words, unacceptable. After a hat trick against her former side as a Chicago Red Star that year, she told reporters the girls deserved better and walked away from the league entirely in 2019.
The club she's returning to barely resembles that one. Two NWSL championships. A Concacaf W Champions Cup. A home ground that actually befits an elite team. Gotham president Yael Averbuch West credits Kerr's 2018 post-match comments as part of what sparked the reckoning inside the organization. There's a certain poetry in her coming back to finish what she helped start.
The other factor is domestic. Kerr's wife, Kristie Mewis — who won the 2023 NWSL title with Gotham — had glowing things to say about manager Juan Carlos Amorós and life in the New York metro area. When your partner has already done the scouting report, the decision gets easier.
"She said everyone was so lovely and welcoming," Kerr says. "I wanted to be around good people and have that family feel."
The record chase is real
Kerr still holds the NWSL all-time regular-season goals record — a number no one has touched in the years since she left. But across all competitions, she's slipped to fourth at 78 goals, with Lynn Biyendolo sitting at 82. Five goals separate Kerr from reclaiming the top spot, and Biyendolo is coming back from maternity leave. The window to move is now.
Her likely debut comes at the Queens Classic at Citi Field, where Gotham has already shifted close to 30,000 tickets. That's the kind of stage Kerr was made for — she's already played alongside several of her former Chelsea teammates who made the same transatlantic move, including Guro Reiten, Jess Carter, and Ann-Katrin Berger.
Anyone pricing up Gotham for the 2025 NWSL title should be adjusting accordingly. The defending champions just added the league's all-time leading regular-season scorer to a squad that already had serious firepower. That's not a squad improvement — it's a statement.
"I just want to score my first goal and be back playing in the league," Kerr says. "I feel like a rookie all over again."
She isn't one. And the rest of the league knows it.
