Forward Sam Kerr has signed with reigning NWSL champions Gotham FC through the 2030 season, the team announced on Monday.
Kerr was a free agent after her contract with English powerhouse Chelsea expired. The signing, which ESPN reported earlier in June, marks the return of Kerr to the NWSL and her former team. Kerr is still the NWSL’s leader in regular-season goals despite not playing in the NWSL since 2019.
“I’m incredibly excited to return to Gotham FC and to this city,” Kerr said in a statement. “This club was an important part of my journey, and to come back at this moment, with everything Gotham has built, is really special. The ambition here is clear, and I’m looking forward to helping this team compete for trophies and create more history.”
The NWSL’s maximum contract length is five seasons. Gotham’s commitment to Kerr for the next four and a half seasons is likely to help spread out the value of the deal given the annual constraints of the salary cap.
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Despite being a former NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner, Kerr is not eligible for the NWSL’s new High Impact Player rule, which allows teams to pay star players up to $1 million over the salary cap. As originally written, the HIP rule defines which players can access that extra money based on a set of criteria designed by the NWSL Board of Governors.
Kerr misses out on all of the criteria in large part because she tore her ACL in January 2024 and missed 20 months of play. The NWSL Players Association filed a grievance over the HIP rule, arguing that it violated the collective bargaining agreement and federal law, and that the $1 million should just be added to the salary cap. No changes to the rules criteria have been announced. The HIP rule officially goes into place on July 1.
ESPN confirmed that Gotham did not use HIP money to sign Kerr.
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Gotham has allocation money that can also be used to offset the cap hit of players. Gotham acquired $350,000 in expansion allocation money last week by trading defender Lilly Reale to Boston Legacy FC. That allocation money can be used through the end of 2027.
Kerr will have to wait to debut for Gotham until after the NWSL’s transfer window opens on July 14. Gotham hosts Washington Spirit the following day in the Queens Classic at Citi Field, the team’s first regular-season game in New York City. Kerr won the NWSL Golden Boot and MVP awards in 2017 with Sky Blue FC (now Gotham FC) in 2017, when she scored 17 goals in 22 games.
The 32-year-old Australian has 77 career regular-season goals in the NWSL.
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“Sam is one of the defining players of her generation and a game-changing talent who has consistently delivered at the highest levels of world football,” Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West said in a statement.
“Her winning mentality, relentless competitiveness and ability to decide matches in an instant make her one of the most impactful players in the game. Bringing Sam back to Gotham is a landmark moment for our club, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Kerr returns to the United States after she and American midfielder Kristie Mewis recently got married and had a child together. Mewis is a Boston-area native who played for six different NWSL teams in her career.
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She has not officially retired since departing West Ham United in 2025.
Kerr played for Chelsea for six years, twice winning the Women’s Super League Golden Boot along with five league titles and six different domestic cups.
She scored her 116th career goal for the club in her final game in May to tie the Chelsea scoring record. Kerr played for Sky Blue FC from 2015-2017, when the club struggled on and off the field.
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When Kerr returned to New Jersey with the Red Stars to play Sky Blue FC, she told reporters after that July 2018 game that “the girls deserve better…I wish I could take every single one of them with me but that’s not the way it is.”
A week later, The Equalizer published an investigation detailing a Sky Blue FC practice facility that lacked locker rooms, running water, or permanent bathrooms.
The club rebranded as NJ/NY Gotham FC in 2021 and moved to Red Bull Arena (now Sports Illustrated Stadium), closer to New York City. Earlier this month, Gotham announced plans to repurpose and customize the New York Red Bulls’ old training facility to make it their own bespoke home for the first time. Gotham is also in discussions with NYCFC about playing at the new Etihad Park in Queens, which opens next year.
