The last time Sam Kerr wore a Gotham jersey, the team was known as Sky Blue FC, and its home games were played at Yurcak Field on the campus of Rutgers University.
On Wednesday night, Kerr made her second Gotham appearance on Wednesday, this time at Citi Field in the Queens Classic against archrival Washington Spirit. She came on in the 64th minute and had nine touches in her team’s 1-0 win with just one shot on target.
Within two years, Gotham would share a permanent home with the New York Football Club across the street in Union Park, marking Gotham’s transition from Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey to New York City’s first dedicated soccer stadium.
Gotham has come a long way since Kerr’s last season here in 2017, when she won the NWSL Golden Boot and MVP award. It now boasts two NRL championships, and Kerr has competed in two more World Cups and a Summer Olympics for Australia since then.
Kerr led the NRL in all-time goals through 2024. She still holds the record for regular season goals and remains Australia’s top scorer with 73 goals in international play.
So what influenced her decision to return to the defending NFL champions?
“First, I always had the desire to return to the NFL,” Kerr told reporters after the signing. “I loved my time here, I had a lot of fun here. I played good football here, so I think I always had a desire to come back, and then with all the change at Chelsea and wanting something new, I think it was really the only league I saw myself in.”
The NWSL has experienced amazing growth in the past several years. Attendance has skyrocketed. The league set a new attendance record on its opening weekend, attracting 129,202 fans.
Season attendance totaled 2 million for the first time in 2024. Hosting games in MLB stadiums has become a tradition, with Oracle Park welcoming more than 40,000 fans for Bay FC against the Spirit last year and Wrigley Field hosting the Red Stars and Bay FC in 2024. Empower Field, home of the Broncos, hosted Denver Summit and the Spirit in March.
Wednesday’s Queens Classic was the first NFL regular season game ever held in New York City.
“Well, what a game,” Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amoros said. “We are very excited to have the opportunity to play at Citi Field in New York City in front of such a large number of fans. This is certainly a day that will write the history of women’s soccer and women’s sports in New York City and the United States.”
“It feels like a perfect moment to me,” Kerr said. “The last time I left Gotham, we were Sky Blue at the time. We were playing in front of a few thousand people, and that’s the kind of thing we were fighting for… playing in front of sold-out stadiums with the best players on wages we deserved.”
“There are so many people who did so many amazing things over the last six years while I was gone, which allowed me to come back and live out my American dream.”
Kerr’s scoring prowess is welcome for a team that had scored 15 goals in 13 games as of Wednesday. The star striker returns to an upcoming club in one of the world’s biggest sporting markets and reunites with former Chelsea team-mates Jess Carter, Anne-Katrin Berger and Guru Ritten with a chance to reclaim her all-time goalscoring record.