Sam Kerr indicators Chelsea contract extension after exit prank

Sam Kerr has signed a two-year contract extension with Chelsea, minutes after the membership launched a video message from the ahead that steered she could be leaving.

There was loads of hypothesis concerning the 30-year-old’s future after Chelsea launched a video main followers to consider that the Australia worldwide was leaving the membership after 5 years. Nevertheless, 20 minutes later, the membership revealed it was a joke and Kerr would stay at Stamford Bridge till 2026.

Kerr signed for Chelsea in 2019 and has scored 99 targets in 128 matches. In honour of the prolific striker committing her future to the membership, Chelsea renamed their Stamford Bridge stadium to “Samford Bridge”, and their girls’s stadium Kingsmeadow grew to become “Kerrsmeadow.”

“It is actually thrilling and a really proud second for me. Having the chance to remain at a membership like Chelsea means loads to me. I am actually excited to proceed to push and to attempt to win trophies,” Kerr mentioned within the up to date announcement.

The 2023 Ballon d’Or runner-up missed the second half of final season after struggling an ACL rupture whereas on a warm-weather coaching camp with Chelsea in Morocco. Regardless of the long-term accidents to Kerr and several other different gamers, together with United States striker Mia Fishel, Chelsea lifted their fifth consecutive Girls’s Tremendous League (WSL) trophy in Might.

On the finish of the 2023-24 season, Chelsea bid farewell to former supervisor Emma Hayes, who grew to become the pinnacle coach of the USA girls’s nationwide crew. Sonia Bompastor, who led Lyon to the Champions League ultimate, was introduced as Hayes’ substitute final month.

Kerr is ready to return to the pitch throughout the first few months of Bompastor’s tenure at Chelsea, boosting the already stacked squad. She was lately dominated out of Australia’s 2024 Paris Olympics marketing campaign, citing that the match got here too quickly in her prolonged restoration.

Kerr has gained 5 WSL titles, three FA Cups, two Girls’s League cups, and the Girls’s Neighborhood Defend in 2020 with Chelsea. Together with Vivianne Miedema, she is the one participant to have scored in opposition to each opponent she has confronted within the WSL.

“We’re delighted that Sam has prolonged her cope with the membership,” Chelsea basic supervisor Paul Inexperienced mentioned. “Sam is a pacesetter and one of many world’s finest strikers and goalscorers. She has been essential to our success, and we look ahead to welcoming her again from harm subsequent season.’