‘Golden in every way’: Kerr’s Midas touch
Chelsea’s manager hails the Matildas captain, saying she ‘wouldn’t trade her for any player in the world’, after the Australian scored a brace in Super League title win.
The Greatest Showwoman has struck again. Twice. Sam Kerr’s double gave Chelsea the Women’s Super League title and now she takes a seat on a big old jet airliner, surely up the front of the plane, champers on demand in one of those mega-comfortable seats that recline all the way back, with an extra blanket, to come home sweet home and prepare for a World Cup she holds in the palms of her hands.
Here’s hoping Kerr hasn’t peaked too early. She sneezes and the ball finds the back of the net in the last few magical weeks. Big goals. Tournament-winning goals. She’s survived the English season without injury before setting her sights on the biggest and best assignment of all. A World Cup in her own backyard, a big sprawling yard stretching from Perth to Sydney, starting on July 20. It’ll be a grand event. Mates as far flung as New York have been messaging me, “Can you get us tickets to the final?”
Kerr has become the rock star of her sport, the rock star of the World Cup, a true rock star of Australian sport. She’s acting like another rock star, the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, whose approach to the release of his band’s new album, But Here We Are, is to say not a single world about it. Interviews are overrated, he reckons. The music can do the talking.
Kerr doesn’t say boo, either, save a few words in quick post-match discussions on television. Her football says plenty. The less she’s interviewed, the more interesting she becomes. More enigmatic. Charismatic. Her celebrations are effortlessly cool. I’d love to interview her but I don’t want to, either, lest the aura be spoiled. Australian cricket captain Meg Lanning bats with an air of, “This is my pitch,” and Kerr plays football in the same manner, and you sort of want to leave it at that. “I keep lifting these trophies,” she said, in full rock-star mode, after Chelsea’s 3-0 WSL-sealing triumph over Reading.
She always sounds rather rebellious, although I’m not sure what she’s rebelling against. Sticking it up her critics, but does she really have any? “I mean, people are never happy, right?” she said. “If I‘m scoring goals, people will say it’s not about stats, and if I’m not scoring, it’s about the stats. I just do whatever. I don’t really care what people say about me. Honestly. I’m in the greatest team in England. I’m happy. The team’s happy. It’s not about me. It’s about the team.”
Her next team is the Matildas. She’s the captain. If Kerr leads Australia, little old Australia, to its first football World Cup triumph, it’ll capture the imagination like Cathy Freeman’s run at the Sydney Olympics. A Foo fighter of an athlete won’t talk much talk, but she’ll walk the walk. The Matildas first match is against Ireland at Sydney’s Stadium Australia on July 20.
To the suggestion The Greatest Showwoman had lived up to expectations in England, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes said, “That’s an understatement. You (Australians) should cherish her. You have the most unbelievable leader. She is golden in every way, shape and form. She’s one of the best I have ever coached. She’s outstanding. She manages pressure. She manages expectations. She does it with joy. She does it with a smile on her face and I would not trade Sam Kerr for any player in the world. “
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