SYDNEY – Sam Kerr had just turned seven years old when she watched Cathy Freeman’s gold rush in the Sydney Olympics, so inspired by the greatest moment in Australia’s female sporting history that she would replay the footage back again and again.
On Thursday, Kerr leads out the nation at the same Stadium Australia where that 400m took place. A 10-minute drive away, along Faversham Lane, Kerr has been etched into history herself, featuring in a black and white street artwork in the suburb of Marrickville.
The Chelsea star, who has become the face of the 2023 Women’s World Cup, should be used to it by now. She was the first-ever woman to feature on the front of a Fifa video game, stars in a new Nike advert, and a giant portrait of her in full Australia kit adorns a wall in her hometown of Fremantle.
Never before has so much expectation rested on the striker, however, with the co-hosts’ hopes as dark horses dependent on her success at this tournament.
“The best goalscorer of a generation” is how one Australian TV segment put it, while The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and Wide World of Sports have all named her the most influential woman in Australian sport. It is only a pity for Thursday’s opponents, the Republic of Ireland, that she is not wearing a green jersey instead – she would have qualified thanks to her family links to Cork.
Since opting for Australia and making her debut aged just 15, Kerr has become an unlikely icon. She was a remarkably late convert to the sport, and four years before making her international breakthrough she was still an Aussie rules devotee. Her dad was Aussie rules, so were her brothers.
The sporting prestige runs through the family – her grandfather was a featherweight boxer and her grandmother a basketball player – but only a twist of fate set her on the path to football.
Up until the age of 12, her cropped hair and blonde tips meant that most of the boys in her team did not realise they were playing with a girl.
She continued to play even after being discovered and only when she suffered a black eye, as the game grew more and more physical as she got older, was she pulled out of the team.
The early part of her career saw her flit between her homeland and the USA, but it was in Western Australia that Perth Glory coach Bobby Despotovski made the transformative decision to switch her from winger to striker.
The records have spoken for themselves. Having surpassed Tim Cahill’s half-century of goals, she is now Australia’s record goalscorer, a feat claimed with five goals against Indonesia, and stakes a claim as the nation’s greatest-ever beyond Cahill and Mark Viduka.
When that milestone prompted familiar debate about whether her accomplishments could be accurately compared to her male counterparts, Kerr’s response was scathing. In a Matildas documentary streamed on Disney+, she reflected: “It’s not about me – imagine a young girl growing up and going ‘oh, no matter what I do…’”.
Kerr has refused to be disheartened too, by Fifa’s decision to introduce officially-sanctioned armbands, such as the “One Love” inclusion armband.
It means rainbow armbands in support of the LGBT+ community will not be allowed, but Kerr – who is in a relationship with USA midfielder Kristie Mewis – insists: “There’ll be multiple opportunities where I get to use my voice for things. Obviously, we would have liked to have worn it, but I’m not going to put this team at risk [of a booking for breaking Fifa rules].”
Kerr and her teammates are conscious that the eyes of the world are on Australia, on and off the pitch. In the 2019 World Cup, they did not make it beyond the round of 16, where they lost to Norway on penalties. Tellingly Kerr contributed five goals, a tally only beaten by Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan of the USA (the eventual champions) and Ellen White of England (who made the semi-finals).
“The expectation on me has grown over the last four years,” Kerr said on Wednesday.
“I’ve learned to deal with it, I’ve enjoyed it. Back at Chelsea, I’ve enjoyed the pressure too. Expectation just comes from outside noise. I know what the coach and team expect from me. That’s all that matters.”
It took Kerr two years to finally head to the Women’s Super League after first hearing of Chelsea’s interest. There, she has become synonymous with silverware, winning four successive titles, two FA Cups and a League Cup, all topped off with the renowned backflip celebration she perfected on the school oval.
“It’s not planned,” she said, asked if she plans to somersault her way past the Irish, who are captained by a familiar rival in Arsenal’s Katie McCabe.
“Hopefully the games are a bit more cruisey [sic] and I don’t have to do it until near the end of the tournament. It’ll all be safe, I promise you.”
Head coach Tony Gustavsson is less convinced it is a good idea. “No comment.”
Australia have typically struggled for consistency, but England are among the recent nations who they have beaten, ending the Lionesses’ 30-match unbeaten run in April. Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley will ensure Vera Pauw’s Ireland have a triple threat to contend with – but the weight of expectation falls on Kerr as she promises her own “Cathy Freeman moment”.
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