Sam Kerr is to leave Chelsea at the end of the season, bringing the curtain down on one of the most brilliant, trophy-laden careers in Women’s Super League football.

The English giants announced on Thursday (Friday AEST) the Matildas captain will leave after six-and-a-half years when her contract expires in the summer, with her last game for the Blues set to be an emotional occasion against Manchester United on Saturday.

“Obviously, there’s a little bit of sadness,” Kerr said, announcing her departure.

“It’s leaving Chelsea, leaving the club where I’ve been for so long, leaving my teammates, leaving the fans.

“But when I reflect on my Chelsea career and doing it for the last time, I just feel happy. Happy that it happened, and I feel so grateful to have played for this club for six years and won as many trophies as we could.

“The only thing that comes to my mind is remembering all the happy moments, the fun moments, and just feeling really proud.”

The decision had been widely expected, with the 32-year-old reportedly snapped up by ambitious NWSL franchise, Denver Summit, in the US last month.

But Kerr will end her trophy-laden spell as Chelsea’s all-time leading league scorer with 64 WSL goals, while her 115 strikes in all competitions has put her just one behind Fran Kirby as the Blues’ all-time leading goalscorer.

So it could still be a fairytale end to her reign as the ‘Queen of Kingsmeadow’ if Kerr could go past Kirby’s mark with a double in her final match against United at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea women play their biggest matches.

Individual and team success went hand-in-hand for Kerr, who was twice the WSL’s Golden Boot winner as leading scorer and was voted second in the Ballon d’Or as the world’s top women’s player in 2023.

There were difficult times, too, none more so when Kerr was charged with racially aggravated harassment against a police officer following an incident in London in 2023, but was found not guilty 13 months later following a high-profile trial.

Kerr was also sidelined for 20 months after sustaining a knee ligament injury in January 2024, but it’s a measure of her quality that she returned this season to score her 100th Chelsea goal and, even though it took a long time for her to properly recover fitness, she still ended top scorer with 16 goals in 29 matches.

Her form of late has offered glimpses of Kerr in her pomp, leading to suggestions Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor should do everything possible to keep her in the squad.

But the Blues have been strongly linked with Manchester City’s Khadija Shaw, who has supplanted the Australian as the deadliest striker in the WSL.

Married to American international Kristie Mewis and with the pair having baby son Jagger, Kerr is expected to now announce she’s resuming her career in the US, where she was once the all-time leading scorer in the NWSL.

Paying tribute to Kerr, Chelsea said: “We thank Sam for her incredible contribution to our success on the pitch and sustained growth off it.”