Chelsea’s Sam Kerr awarded PFA Women’s Player of the Year

Watching Australian forward Sam Kerr don the Chelsea kit once again this past season was a joy to witness. There is something about Kerr’s game that looks so effortless when she takes the pitch in one of the most difficult positions on a football pitch. She has the innate quality of elevating the confidence, and play of her teammates around her. Her talents, and ability to carry the Blues on her back at some points this season were acknowledged as she received yet another award. Kerr was crowned the Professional Footballers’ Association Women’s Player of the Year along with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah on the men’s side.

Kerr became just the fourth player on the CFC Women’s team to be given this honor along with Fran Kirby, Ji So-yun, and Bethany England. The individual awards keep raining down as Kerr won the 2022 Women’s Footballer of the Year award from England’s Football Writers’ Association back in early May. With the new additions in the backline and on the flanks for the Blues, Hayes knows she cannot do much to improve what she possesses in the striker position. Her iconic moments during the 21/22 season sum up the emotion that it took for the team to get to the finish line.

Chelsea’s Sam Kerr awarded PFA Women’s Player of the Year

Kerr continues to rack up goals, and individual accolades, and through all of it, Kerr somehow looks like she has not yet played her best football of her career yet. Following being given the award, Kerr expressed her thoughts, stating:

"“It’s a massive honor. Whenever you are voted by your peers, I think that’s the highest honor as a player, so it’s an amazing feeling,’ said Kerr, who also explained why the silverware claimed by the team this season felt extra special…This season has definitely been up there with one of the best because of the hardships we’ve been through that kind of make it a little bit better. After chasing all season, to end up on top, the difficult times make it all that sweeter.”"

Kerr was not the only individual to be honored by the PFA in 2022. The Blues had four of the Women’s Super League Team of the Year with Guro Reiten in the midfield, Ann Katrin-Berger between the sticks, Millie Bright in the backline, and Kerr up top. It goes to show how talented of a squad Hayes has put together without the new acquisitions coming into place.

The Aussie has now made the PFA WSL Team of the Year for the second straight season. She had as many goals as the number of matches played in the WSL this season. There is not an individual award that Kerr has not won in any league that she has played in, collecting a whopping 71 individual accolades in the WSL, NWSL, W-League, and internationally throughout her storied career.

From clutch goals in the final minutes of the match to save the season to putting together records that look like they could stand the test of time, Kerr has become a master of the world’s game. The brand-new individual accomplishment by Kerr is quite impressive given the company that she is joining, but given her selfless personality, all she wants is to continue to better herself for the team.

To say that Kerr is going to score more goals is not an exaggeration with the quality of the players that are going to be behind her. Buchanan knows how to play with world-class forwards including Christine Sinclair. From Buchanan firing in through balls to Kerr or Eve Perisset lofting in crosses from the flanks, there is no question that Kerr will have more opportunities to find the back of the net than ever before.

With another individual award in her back pocket, Kerr is moving into the category of not only the best women’s striker ever but one of the best strikers in the history of world football. The question has to be as the next season looms around the corner, how does Kerr continue to achieve so much success on a consistent level. She instantly raised the game of the Chelsea Women to the next level since coming over from the NWSL in the fall of 2019.

Since Kerr came to Kingsmeadow, the Blues have won every WSL title, two FA Cup trophies, and made the Champions League final for the first time in club history. As the growth continues, Chelsea fans cannot ignore where the accession of the team took a massive jolt. It is no surprise that her successes are honored once again, but for Kerr, she knows it is not time to get complacent while the rest of the world tries to replicate what she does.