Sam Kerr is to leave Chelsea on the finish of the season, bringing the curtain down on one of the good, trophy-laden careers in Ladies’s Tremendous League soccer.

The English giants introduced on Friday morning that the Matildas captain will leave after six and a part years when her contract expires in the summertime, with her ultimate sport for the Blues set to be an emotional instance towards Manchester United on Saturday.

“Clearly, there is a little little bit of disappointment,” Kerr mentioned, pronouncing her departure.

“It is leaving Chelsea, leaving the club the place I have been for see you later, leaving my teammates, leaving the lovers.

“But if I replicate on my Chelsea career and doing it for the ultimate time, I simply really feel glad. Satisfied that it came about, and I think so thankful to have performed for this club for six years and gained as many trophies as shall we.

“The one factor that comes to my thoughts is remembering all of the glad moments, the thrill moments, and simply feeling in point of fact proud.”

The verdict were extensively anticipated, with the 32-year-old reportedly snapped up via the formidable NWSL franchise, Denver Summit, in america ultimate month.

However Kerr will finish her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea’s all-time main league scorer with 64 WSL targets, whilst her 115 moves in all competitions have put her only one in the back of Fran Kirby because the Blues’ all-time main goalscorer.

So it will nonetheless be a fairytale finish to her reign because the ‘Queen of Kingsmeadow’ if Kerr may just move previous Kirby’s mark with a double in her ultimate fit towards United at Stamford Bridge, the place Chelsea girls play their largest fits.

Particular person and crew good fortune went hand in hand for Kerr, who used to be two times the WSL’s Golden Boot winner as main scorer and used to be voted 2nd within the Ballon d’Or as the sector’s best girls’s participant in 2023.

There have been tricky occasions, too, none extra so when Kerr used to be charged with racially annoyed harassment towards a police officer following an incident in London in 2023, however used to be discovered no longer in charge 13 months later following a high-profile trial.

Kerr used to be additionally sidelined for 20 months after maintaining a knee ligament harm in January 2024, however it is a measure of her high quality that she returned this season to ranking her a hundredth Chelsea function and, despite the fact that it took a very long time for her to correctly recuperate health, she nonetheless ended as best scorer with 16 targets in 29 fits.

Her type of overdue has presented glimpses of Kerr in her pomp, main to tips Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor must do the entirety imaginable to stay her within the squad.

However the Blues were strongly related with Manchester Town’s Khadija Shaw, who has supplanted the Australian because the deadliest striker within the WSL.

Married to American world Kristie Mewis and with the pair having child son Jagger, Kerr is predicted to announce she’s resuming her career in america, the place she used to be as soon as the best-ever main scorer within the NWSL.

Paying tribute to Kerr, Chelsea mentioned: “We thank Sam for her implausible contribution to our good fortune at the pitch and sustained enlargement off it.”

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