Sam Kerr set to join Gotham FC after leaving Chelsea
Sam Kerr is set to sign for NWSL side Gotham FC on a free transfer following the expiry of her contract with Chelsea.
The 32-year-old Australia striker announced her exit from the eight-time Women’s Super League champions in May, ending a six-and-a-half-year stay that featured five WSL titles, three FA Cups, three League Cups and 116 goals in 158 appearances, the joint-most in the club’s history.
The Athletic reported in March that Kerr was expected to leave in the summer, with strong interest from multiple NWSL clubs.
According to sources — who, like all mentioned in this article, chose to remain anonymous to protect relationships — Kerr is set to join reigning NWSL champions and her former club Gotham, though it was known as Sky Blue FC when she played there from 2015 to 2017 and scored 28 goals in 40 appearances.
Gotham currently sits fifth in the NWSL standings but have made big moves in recent transfer windows to defend their title, including the landmark intraleague transfer for USWNT star Jaedyn Shaw and the acquisition of Kerr’s former teammate and Norway forward Guro Reiten from Chelsea.
Reiten and Jess Carter were teammates of Kerr’s at Chelsea, and now play for Gotham. (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Ambitious player signings have dovetailed with bold steps off the pitch. Earlier this month, Gotham announced plans to construct the New Jersey-based club’s first-ever training facility. The facility will cost around $35 million and include a comprehensive suite of performance and operational spaces, including three grass playing surfaces (one heated), a 3,000-square-foot gym, a hydrotherapy room and dedicated player recovery room.
The news arrived days after the club promoted Yael Averbuch West from general manager and head of soccer operations to president of soccer operations, a move that reflects West’s central role in building one of the NWSL’s most ambitious organizations.
The move to Gotham will represent Kerr’s third stint in the NWSL, having most recently spent two seasons with the Chicago Red Stars between January 2018 and December 2019, scoring 35 goals in 43 appearances before joining Chelsea.
Kerr will join former Chelsea teammates Jess Carter, Ann-Katrin Berger and Reiten. The latter joined Gotham in January on an initial loan, before joining on a permanent deal until 2029 upon the 31-year-old Norway international’s contract with Chelsea expires in July.
Kerr won two consecutive WSL Golden Boot awards in 2020-21 and 2021-22 as Chelsea won the league, before winning the WSL Player of the Year Award and Football Writers’ Association Women’s Footballer of the Year in the season after. In October 2023, she came second in the Ballon d’Or voting.
In January 2024, however, the forward sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury and was sidelined until September 2025.
Kerr ended the 2025-26 season having scored 17 goals and provided three assists in 30 matches across all competitions for Chelsea. Kerr scored eight of those goals in her final eight matches, with her final goal arriving in the 1-0 win against Manchester United in the final WSL match of the season.
Kerr’s return helps soften Reale blow
Analysis by soccer writer Melanie Anzidei
Kerr’s return to Gotham is poetic. She was with the club during its Sky Blue days and held the record for most NWSL goals scored by a player in the regular season until Lynn Biyendolo broke her record while still at Gotham.
Her return to a fanbase already familiar with her, at a time when the team could desperately use a proven goal scorer, is a massive boost. It helps that Kerr has proven chemistry with former Chelsea teammates Berger, Carter and Reiten. The latter even told The Athletic she spoke with Kerr and her wife Kristie Mewis, who also played at Gotham, about her move to the U.S. once it was official.
Kerr’s ability to reclaim her record while back at Gotham, the very team that broke it, feels full circle.
Bringing in Kerr feels like the only justification for trading Lilly Reale — bringing in a beloved member of the Sky Blue family to help ease the pain of losing their 2025 Rookie of the Year.
It remains an unusual decision to release a defender for a forward. However, this may mean that defenders like Mandy Freeman, who is back in training, as well as Bruninha may soon be returning to the pitch to reclaim their spots in the backline.