Sam Kerr awarded FWA Women's Footballer of the Year

 Posted on April 30th, 2022 for The Top Flight

Photo Courtesy via Tom Jenkins/The Guradian

For the second year in a row, Chelsea F.C. Women can claim the winner of the Football Writer’s Association Women’s Footballer of the year. 

The prestigious award for the 2021/22 season goes to forward Sam Kerr, who has dominated the Barclays FA Women’s Super League with 18 goals so far this season. She currently is the league leader for goal involvements with 18 goals and 4 assists. 

What has been excellent about Kerr’s 18 goals is that none of them resulted from taking penalties, meaning every single goal tally of hers came from open play. She is also the only player in her league to have more goal involvements (22) than games played (18). 

Kerr swept the Football Writer’s Women’s award winning 40 percent of the vote. 

From Chelsea F.C.’s website:

“The Australian continuously finds herself in the running for the Barclays FA WSL Player of the Month accolade, most recently being nominated in March after scoring five goals in five WSL games. Not forgetting, Kerr’s epic goal in the 92nd minute against Aston Villa in March which sparked euphoria at Kingsmeadow and kept the Blues' title hopes well and truly alive.”

Nothing New for Kerr

Sam Kerr is no stranger to winning accolades. 

The 28 year-old won the FA Women’s Super League Golden Boot award for being the league’s top goal scorer (21). She is also well in contention to win it again for the 2021/22 season. 

She won an ESPY in 2019 for Best NWSL Player and Best International Women’s Soccer Player. She’s the only female to have been awarded the Golden Boot in three different leagues: the Australian league, the NWSL, and Women’s Super League. 

And to top it all off, Kerr leads the way for being the all-time leading Australian international scorer for both male and female. 

Chelsea Women’s manager, Emma Hayes, had nothing but praise for the player after her team’s win against Tottenham last week where Kerr scored the winning header:

“She’s such a top player, in every way.”

“You go and look at her all-around stats as a centre forward and no-one comes close to her in this league - maybe worldwide.”