I’d never missed the start of a men’s World Cup. Sam Kerr changed all that

Overnight, in two very different parts of the world, two football matches fought for my attention. In the Persian Gulf, host nation Qatar were kicking off the men’s World Cup against Ecuador, while at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were taking on London rivals Spurs in the English Women’s Super League. Could the weather or cultural climates have been more antithetical?

I haven’t missed an opening match of a World Cup since England played Uruguay in 1966, a 0-0 draw watched on black and white television. In 56 years I’ve never faced the choice I faced last night. In the end, FIFA President Gianni Infantino made the choice simple, with his bizarre speech: “Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled...”

Sam Kerr has turned my football world upside down. Credit: Getty Images

I felt like watching something else.

Actually, it was a no-brainer. I was rewarded after just 12 minutes, with Australian Sam Kerr threading the ball between the goalkeeper and three defenders to open the scoring for Chelsea. The game ended up 3-0, sending Chelsea to the top of the table.

Why am I watching more women’s football than men’s these days? First, in the women’s game, players rarely roll around on the floor after being fouled, looking as though they’ve just been hit by a sniper’s bullet. Second, to the best of my knowledge, fans are not boorishly brawling in the stands and streets before, during and after games. Third, I have a football-fan-crush for the phenomenon that is Sam Kerr.

Kerr is not just a footballer. She’s a dude. She’s a humanitarian. She’s got chutzpah; she hip-and-shouldered (AFL style) a pitch invader during a Chelsea game against Juventus. This year, you’ll find her front and centre of the video game FIFA 23 — the first time in the game’s 20-year history a woman has featured on the cover. And, like the rest of the Australian women’s team, she hangs back after every game, signing every shirt offered to her, giving her boots to girls who she inspires and smiling for every selfie with fans – win, lose or draw.

Sam Kerr drops a pitch invader during Chelsea’s Champions League draw with Juventus.

Beyond all this, though, Kerr is a rare football talent. Take her two goals on the final day of the 2021-22 WSL season for Chelsea against Manchester United in May. Chelsea were 1-2 down and had to win to clinch the title. They were heading for a loss, allowing Arsenal to win the league. Early in the second half, a ridiculously crafted Kerr volley from just outside the penalty box levelled the score, but that was nothing compared to the audacity of her second goal (Chelsea’s fourth) minutes later.

Forget comparisons of the men’s v women’s game. By anyone’s standards, Kerr is simply good. More than good. Sam Kerr is great. Not that she or the women’s game need my approval.

This week, Sam Kerr’s Blues will be taking on Real Madrid in the Women’s Champions League 24 hours after the Socceroos play their first World Cup fixture in Qatar, a country where Kerr would face seven years in prison just for being who she is.

I want to watch both matches. One will bring me a great deal of enjoyment, the other I’ll watch uneasily and conflicted over my concerns about the host country.

I haven’t totally lifted my gaze from the men’s game, but I am officially out of my blokey-patriarchal-football closet to tell the world that, right now, my favourite player is not a male, South American galactico from soccer’s old guard but a superstar Australian woman from football’s new frontier.

Watching women’s football reminds me of how the game used to be, before it became cynical, before I became disenchanted with the bazillions of dollars changing hands, before corruption, before sportswashing (although this is not exclusive to the male game).

The women’s game and Sam Kerr remind me of why I loved football in the first place.

Roger Joyce has worked on books for the Reverend Bill Crews, Mark Bouris, and is writing the memoirs of former NSW deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas, and Danny and Leila Abdallah, both to be published in 2023.

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