Chelsea superstar Sam Kerr returns to the NWSL - but there's a twist

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Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

Two-time National Women's Soccer League MVP Sam Kerr has re-joined Gotham FC after leaving Chelsea.

One of women's football's worst-kept secrets has now been officially confirmed, with Gotham announcing that the Australian superstar has returned to her old stomping ground.

Kerr, one of the NWSL's all-time greats, previously played for Gotham (then known as Sky Blue FC) between 2015 and 2017 before moving to the Chicago Red Stars and eventually ending up at Chelsea.

Despite being a two-time MVP and three-time Golden Boot winner, Kerr still has unfinished business in the NWSL, given that she did not win the Championship with any of her three previous clubs. Gotham are the reigning champions and currently fifth in the regular season standings.

Once it became clear that Kerr would leave Chelsea, a return to the NWSL was always the most likely scenario, though it only recently became clear that she was on her way to New Jersey.

Kerr is not a High Impact Player

Kerr was linked with numerous NWSL clubs. Expansion side Boston Legacy appeared to be an appealing option given that Kerr's wife, former USWNT star Kristie Mewis, hails from the capital of Massachusetts.

The 32-year-old herself previously seemed to hint that she could be on her way to California when she said that her next club should be based in a climate more akin to her native Australia.

In the end, though, Gotham have somewhat unexpectedly won the race to sign her. But her destination isn't the biggest surprise of her NWSL return; it's actually the fact that she will not be a High Impact Player (HIP).

This new rule was - somewhat controversially - created in the off-season in a bid to allow the Washington Spirit to retain USWNT superstar Trinity Rodman. She was out of contract and had lucrative European offers that the Spirit couldn't match because of the NWSL's salary cap.

In order to make NWSL clubs more financially competitive with Europe, clubs are now permitted to spend an additional $1 million over the cap on players that meet a very specific and bizarre set of sporting and commercial criteria.

Curiously, because Kerr only returned from an 18-month ACL injury last year, she does not meet any of the criteria that would allow her to qualify as a HIP despite being one of the biggest stars in women's football.

Due to this oversight, reports have suggested that the NWSL is already planning to get rid of the arbitrary criteria in order to let clubs freely decide how to allocate their HIP money, but this hasn't been confirmed yet by the league.

The new rule is slated to officially come into effect on 1 July, but clubs were able to agree deals beforehand, as the Spirit did with Rodman, or the San Diego Wave with former Chelsea forward Catarina Macario.

Because Kerr doesn't meet the criteria, she is not a High Impact Player. She has been signed to a regular deal, with Gotham able to offset some of their cap spending with the $350,000 they recently acquired in allocation money from Boston for Lilly Reale.

This money can be used until 2027, but Kerr has signed a deal through 2030. This means that Gotham will either have to make some roster gymnastics in the future, or they already know that the HIP rule will indeed be amended and that Kerr will eventually get a roster designation befitting her status as one of the all-time greats.