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The Live Sport Bible is here!'I just feel happy': Sam Kerr is to end Chelsea career
Ian Chadband, AAP • May 15th, 2026 7:28 am
Sam Kerr has announced she's leaving Chelsea, where she's enjoyed so much success | Photo: EPA
Sam Kerr is to leave Chelsea at the end of the season, bringing the curtain down on one of the most brilliant, trophy-laden careers in Women's Super League football.
The English giants announced on Friday that the Matildas captain will leave after six-and-a-half years when her contract expires in the summer, with her last game for the Blues set to be an amotional occasion against Manchester United on Saturday.
"Obviously, there's a little bit of sadness," Kerr said, announcing her departure.
Sam Kerr has scored 115 goals for Chelsea in a glittering spell there | Photo: EPA
"It's leaving Chelsea, leaving the club where I've been for so long, leaving my teammates, leaving the fans.
'But when I reflect on my Chelsea career and doing it for the last time, I just feel happy. Happy that it happened, and I feel so grateful to have played for this club for six years and won as many trophies as we could.
"The only thing that comes to my mind is remembering all the happy moments, the fun moments, and just feeling really proud."
The decision had been widely expected, with the 32-year-old having been reported last month to have been snapped up for the ambitious NWSL franchise, Denver Summit, in the US.
But Kerr will end her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea's all-time leading league marksman with 64 WSL goals, while her 115 goals in all competitions has put her just one behind Fran Kirby as the Blues' all-time leading scorer.
So it could still be a fairytale end to her reign as the 'Queen of Kingsmeadow' if Kerr could go past Kirby's mark with a double in her final match against United at Stamford Bridge, the venue where Chelsea women play their biggest matches.
Individual and team success went hand-in-hand for Kerr, who was twice the WSL's Golden Boot winner as leading scorer and was voted second in the Ballon d'Or as the world's top woman player in 2023.
There were difficult times, too, for Kerr, none more so than when she was charged with racially aggravated harassment against a police officer following an incident in London in 2023, but she was found not guilty 13 months later following a high-profile trial.
Kerr was also sidelined for 20 months after sustaining a knee ligament injury in January 2024, but it's a measure of her quality that she returned this season to score her 100th Chelsea goal and, even though it took a long time for her to properly recover fitness, she still ended top scorer with 16 goals in 29 matches.
Her form of late has offered up glimpses of Kerr in her pomp, leading to suggestions that Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor should do everything possible to keep her in the squad.
But the Blues have been strongly linked with Manchester Cty's Khadija Shaw, who has supplanted the Australian as the deadliest striker in the WSL.
Married to American international Kristie Mewis and with the pair having a baby son Jagger, Kerr is expected to now announce that she's resuming her career in the United States, where she was once the all-time leading scorer in the NWSL.
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