Sam Kerr: Australia’s shining star and one of the game’s great goal scorers

Sam Kerr isn’t just Australia’s talisman and captain, she's a women's football superstar and also, reportedly, the highest-paid female footballer in the world (more on that here).

'The Matildas’, however, have slipped down the FIFA women’s rankings in recent years - falling from their highest-ever rank of fourth (in 2017) steadily down to 12th last year and now back up to 10th.

In spite of that, having Kerr leading the line for them might just be enough to fire them deep into the tournament in front of their adoring and, expectedly, huge home support.

"Sam is an incredible athlete, she scores goals for fun and is one of the best in the world. For us in the national team, we're really lucky to be able to play alongside her," fellow Australia forward Hayley Raso (28) recently said of the deadly finisher

Interestingly, Kerr started out life as a winger but is now widely regarded as one of the best forwards aerially - despite only measuring 1.67 metres - and on the break in counterattacking situations.

But just how good is Kerr in a statistical sense?

Well, since the 2016/17 W-League season (now A-League Women), she has hit double digits for goals scored in every single season that she’s played in Australia’s, the USA’s and England’s top divisions bar one.

The exception was the COVID-curtailed 2019/20 edition of the WSL in which she only played four maches after joining Chelsea mid-season.

Admittedly, her return of 12 goals in the most recent WSL season with the West London side was one of her poorest in years.

Nonetheless, her record over the duration of her professional journey demonstrates an incredible level of consistency - something that truly sets her apart as one of the greats of the contemporary game.

Over her professional career, she has scored 179 goals in 197 league matches at club level. Add to that 27 goals in 25 domestic cup appearances and 53 goals in 71 appearances for Australia at international level.

Add those figures up and you get 259 goals in 293 matches - that's 0.88 goals per game. Quite incredible numbers.

That’s nearly a goal-a-game record across a period that exceeds a decade. Make no bones about it, with stats like that, Kerr is one of the world's most productive strikers in women’s or men's football.

For comparison, Brazil's legendary forward Marta (37) - widely regarded as one of the greatest women's players of all time - has scored 69 goals in 147 league appearances and 40 in 64 for her country. That tallies to just over a goal in every two games - 0.52 goals per game, to be precise.

The combined domestic league and national team goals scored per game by USA superstars Alex Morgan (34) and Megan Rapinoe (38) stand at 0.65 and 0.53, respectively.

England's Rachel Daly (31), who was the WSL’s top scorer last season with 22 goals for Aston Villa, has a goals-per-game ratio that falls below one in every two matches across club and national team appearances - she hasn't always played as a striker, it should be noted.

Spain's Alba Redondo (26) registered an incredible Liga F Women's tally of 27 goals in 30 league matches last season for Levante but her career domestic league and international goals-per-game average is also just a fraction over one in two (0.53).

All of this is just to say that looking around at her peers, it’s very hard to find a forward who has scored as readily and as consistently as Kerr, even with her numbers falling away a bit in her most reason club campaign.

Numbers that stack up against the best

Let's put her goal-scoring record into a broader footballing perspective. For the sake of illustration, take her three most recent seasons in the WSL with Chelsea - 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.

Across the above league seasons, Kerr registered a higher goals-per-game ratio than (over the same period of respective league matches) Harry Kane (29) did for Tottenham, Cristiano Ronaldo (38) did for Juventus, Manchester United and Al-Nassr combined, Lionel Messi (36) did for Barcelona and PSG, and 2022 Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema (35) did for Real Madrid.

For the record, Kerr has never won the Ballon d'Or Feminin but did come third in 2021 and 2022.

Pause for a moment and reflect upon the fact that those four men listed are amongst the greatest forwards of their generations and will undoubtedly go down as some of the best finishers to have ever played the game.

Of course, it's not always relevant to compare stats across men’s and women’s football and, importantly, Kerr plays fewer league matches per season. However, it’s still the same sport, with the same ball, on the same field, with the same rules.

Good strikers score one in three games, great strikers score one in two... and then there's Sam Kerr.

If the Matildas are to produce their best-ever showing at a World Cup in front of their home fans and get past the quarter-finals, Kerr will undoubtedly play a huge role and will be expected to bag a hatful of goals.

Even if opposition defences figure out how to mark her out of games, her magnetic presence on the pitch will still be priceless for its ability to open up space for others. 

As she recently noted herself: "If two people are marking me, that means someone else is free.

"It might be someone else's tournament to shine," she added in her typically humble style.

True and perceptive words indeed but a whole nation will be hoping that it is Kerr herself who sets the great southern stadiums alight and burns her name into the World Cup annals.

Australia kick off their campaign against Ireland on the 20th of July.