Perth Glory great Bobby Despotovski reckons Sam Kerr will be rated the best female player in the world one day, but says Australia needs to play more high-quality internationals for her to be recognised.
Kerr has taken the football world by storm over the past 12 months, winning a swag of individual and team awards on the back of her goalscoring feats.
The 24-year-old’s brilliance helped the Matildas win the Tournament of Nations, and she also set a new goalscoring record in America’s National Women’s Soccer League by scoring 17 goals in 22 games for Sky Blue FC.
But surprisingly – and somewhat controversially – she didn’t even make the top three of the FIFA Best Women’s Player award.
The Netherlands’ Lieke Martens won the prestigious award, with Venezuelan striker Deyna Castellanos and American midfielder Carli Lloyd rounding out the top three.
Despotovski coaches Kerr at W-League side Perth Glory, and says the star striker with the trademark backflip goal celebration is the world’s best player.
But he said for her to be truly recognised, the Matildas need to be able to strut their stuff regularly on the big stage.
“Australia don’t play enough strong international games for her to be voted No.1,” Despotovski said.
“As a nation, we need to give her an opportunity to play in good tournaments with the Matildas for her to achieve that. It’s as simple as that.
“We need to win the Asian Cup, and do something at the Olympics, and then we can expect her to be the No.1.”
Kerr will be back in action on Friday night in the top-of-the-table clash with Brisbane Roar at Perth’s Dorrien Gardens.
Roar sit two points clear of Glory, and the game will pit the competition’s best offence against the league’s best defence.
Glory have scored a league-high 18 goals in seven games, while the Roar have conceded a league-low eight goals.
Kerr scored a hat-trick in last round’s 3-3 draw with Newcastle.
But Kerr isn’t the Roar’s only threat.
When the teams last met in round two at Suncorp Stadium, Rachel Hill scored a hat-trick and Kerr added another as Glory won 4-1.
Kerr leads the W-League golden boot race with eight goals, and Hill is in second spot on seven.
“It’s no secret we build the team around Sam Kerr,” Despotovski said.
“It would be stupid not to do that when we have one of the best footballers in the world.
“The girls bought into the philosophy that we got, and everyone is supporting it.”
Kangajets
Guest
Even without Kerr , the Matilda’s can still win a World Cup
Brainstrust
Guest
Actiually I think this shows how stupid Despotovski they have played a lot of matches recently. Australia only have the disadvantage of not playing enough weak teams to pad their scoring stats. They have played a lot of matches recently against the strongest teams and beaten them and Sam Kerr recent performances against strong opposition are exceptional. The only thing debatable about Sam Kerr is that she has only become this super player in the middle of this year, she is the best at the moment., she would have been about top 50 last year, and not even in the top 50 the years previous to that. WIll it last , in the current form she can carry the team to win world cups and Olympic medals, if she is injured then Australia go from favourite to somewhere about 5th to 10th in line.