WHEN discussing who Australia’s greatest-ever exponent of the round ball game is, the like of Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka and Tim Cahill come to mind quickly for me.
Craig Johnston would also be a great shout for his prowess at Liverpool in helping the club win the top flight title and FA Cup during their 1980s heydays.
Surely Sam Kerr is already among these greats, and potentially even surpassed them, and she’s still on the way up.
The 28-year-old from Perth is a bona fide star of women’s soccer/football, and it’s not just from female fans that you hear these shouts.
A few weeks ago, she put in a scintillating performance with Chelsea in her side’s 3-0 win in the Women’s FA Cup final against Arsenal, booting two goals which included a delightfully skillful chip shot that wouldn’t be out of place in a Dennis Bergkamp highlight reel.
Watching the recent Optus Sport highlights clip on YouTube of the FA Cup final, I noticed many positive comments from notoriously hard-to-impress male fans about Kerr’s talents and where she sits in the pantheon of Australian soccer greats.
There is rare, near-unanimous praise for what she has achieved and how she has gone about it.
Since joining the Blues Women’s Super League team almost two years ago, the Matildas skipper has gone from strength to strength, forming a successful partnership with English forward Fran Kirby.
She was the competition’s Golden Boot winner with 21 goals last campaign, is the only Australian (male or female) to score a hat trick at a World Cup and to top it off, the 28-year-old came third in the recent Ballon D’Or voting.
The award, handed out by Football France, is for their footballer of the year, with the Aussie forward coming in behind Barcelona’s Spanish duo Alexia Putellas and Jennifer Hermoso.
Kerr’s image is also helping to grow the game in Australia. The women’s sporting revolution is coming around and in recent years, Kerr has played a massive role in getting girls, and boys, excited about soccer (or football, sorry).
Her massive shirtfront on a pitch invader in the Women’s Champions League last week against Juventus has also won her favour with fans.
Sure, maybe it was unnecessary.
We like to have a laugh at those who thumb their nose at authority. But if they’re just trying to make a nuisance, if they run into an immovable object, we enjoy seeing them fly.
Think the greatest one of all was when big Andrew Symonds let fly with a shoulder charge to a streaker against India in an ODI game at the Gabba in 2008.
This incident was different. In Europe, it’s often people coming onto the pitch to get a selfie with a player. In this instance, the fan was targeting Kerr’s direct opponent, and dills like that can really hold up the play.
Maybe there was a bit of frustration creeping in but she levelled him with a hip and shoulder that her brother, West Coast AFL premiership player Daniel, would have been proud of.
She received a yellow card for the hit, which is bizarre because it wasn’t in the actual game, but her actions have certainly made her a cult hero.
Maybe Sam Kerr hasn’t yet done enough to earn the title as our greatest soccer player. Perhaps I’m trumpeting a little too soon.
But for her overall skill, character and ability to be a leader in this space, it’s hard to argue against her being among Australia’s best at the round-ball game.
