Chelsea striker Sam Kerr has broken Australia’s all-time goalscoring record, scoring four times in her side’s Asian Cup 18-0 win against Indonesia.
Kerr, 28, went into the game on 49 goals. She needed one to equal Cahill’s all-time record, but she instead scored five times to bring her tally to 54 in the commanding 18-0 win over Indonesia in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.
“Obviously, Tim is a legend in Australia, so to be in the same conversation as him is an amazing honour,” Kerr told reporters. “But any time I score for my country, it’s an amazing honour.
“I didn’t have many so I don’t take any goal for granted… breaking the record is amazing and it’s something I will remember forever.”
It only took 12 minutes for the Chelsea forward to surpass Cahill’s previous record of 50 goals, scoring twice in a matter of minutes before adding another three to her tally in the remaining minutes.
Kerr is also the first Matilda to score five goals in a single game since Kate Gill did the same in a 15-0 win over Hong Kong back in 2007.
Sam Kerr was named on the three-strong shortlist for the prestigious FIFA BEST award to honour the best women’s footballer in the world in 2021. But she was beaten by Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas. The Matildas captain came second to Putellas with another Spanish midfielder, Jenni Hermoso. Kerr polled 38 points, 14 behind Putellas and five ahead of Hermoso.
Sam Kerr is also the all-time leading scorer in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States. She is the only female football player to have won the Golden Boot in three different leagues and three different continents – the W-League (Asia) in 2017–18 and 2018–19, the NWSL (North America) in 2017, 2018, 2019 and the FAWSL (Europe) in 2020–21.
Kerr earned her first senior international cap in 2009 at the age of 15 and has since represented Australia at 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup tournaments, 2011, 2015, and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cups, and the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. In 2019, she became the first Australian footballer to score a hat trick at a World Cup tournament.
Kerr was awarded the Julie Dolan Medal in 2017 and 2018 as the best player in Australia and is a four-time recipient of the PFA’s Women’s Footballer of the Year Award in 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019. She was named International Player of the Year by the Football Media Association in 2013 and 2014 and was also named the 2018 Young Australian of the Year.
She moved to Chelsea in 2019 on a two-and-a-half-year contract. Last season, she won The Women’s Super League, the FA Cup, and the Continental Cup with the Blues. Kerr ended the 2021 calendar year as the leading goalscorer in the WSL, with 23 goals, and was second in total assists with 10, behind only team-mate Fran Kirby.
