IN A PARALLEL universe the image of Sam Kerr doing her trademark backflip celebration might well have been beamed onto the facade of the Cork Opera House.
Instead it was the one in Sydney.
The iconic moment was captured in 2020, and Kerr’s star has only continued to rise. She has netted 90 times in just over 100 games for a Chelsea side that have won four consecutive Women’s Super League titles since she arrived from Chicago Red Stars in 2019.
The talent-spotters in the FAI should be forgiven for missing out on the Australia superstar, though.
She even did her best to evade the ones on her own doorstep in East Freemantle, the suburb of Perth where her mother’s father made his home after leaving Cork.
Harry Regan, confirmed to The42 by the Kerr family through correspondence with Football Australia, was born in the Rebel County in 1931.
Their sporting family tree has enough branches to fill a forest.
But let’s start with Harry, who is the father of Kerr’s mother, Roxanne. As she explained to The Athletic prior to Chelsea facing Barcelona in the 2021 Women’s Champions League final, both of her parents’ families arrived Down Under after emigrating by ship.
While Harry left Ireland, Roxanne’s mother was born in Perth after her family had departed England.
“It took forever and I suppose half of them were convicts,” Roxanne said, citing the history of emigration to Australia in the early part of the 20th Century.
Harry Regan was the oldest, but it was one of his younger brothers, Con (first picture, below), who made himself a hero for East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian National Football League.
The sporting pedigree was also evident on Kerr’s patneral side. Grandfather Denzil, who was born in India, was a featherweight boxer and her grandmother Coral played basketball in Calcutta.
Roger, Kerr’s father, was a professional Aussie rules player, so too her brother, Daniel.
They were her heroes and they were who she attempted to emulate.
Incredible to think given Kerr is now a soccer icon, ranked as the country’s most influential sportsperson by ESPN and one of the most recognisable faces in the game.
Things you loved to see: it #AsOne pic.twitter.com/P1GQiEYGOY
— CommBank Matildas (@TheMatildas) June 25, 2020
Bu until the age of 12 she had no desire to follow the path that would eventually lead to stardom. Her heart was set on continuing with her first love.
“Growing up I was 100 per cent [Aussie rules] football,” Kerr told FIFA.com ahead of this World Cup.
“I hated soccer. I never had a soccer ball around the house. The West Coast Eagles, they were like movie stars. I remember being proud, feeling special that my brother played AFL. All I wanted to do was play football. If it was up to me, I would have stayed with football.”
That changed as she approached her teens.
Three years later, aged just 15, she was capped at senior level by then manager Tom Sermanni and, ahead of Thursday’s World Cup opener with Ireland, the 29-year-old has scored 63 times in 116 appearances.
Imagine if all that could have happened wearing green?
The closest she has come was playing against Ireland in September 2021, when the hosts triumphed 3-2 in a thrilling friendly at Tallaght Stadium.
It was an emotional occasion that actually saw rising Matildas’ star Mary Fowler re-united with her own Irish grandfather – Kevin Fowler from Ballymun.
Louise Quinn was centre back that night and, as well as finding the net herself, the international stalwart ensured Kerr failed to hit the taret..
As she explained in the build up to their ultimate re-match – a World Cup curtain raiser in front of 81,500 in Sydney – the aim is to repeat that feat.
“For me, you concentrate on the whole thing but I definitely have an individual battle on my hands, that is essentially what I want.
“What I want to do is not let her score essentially. Keep her out of the game. She really creates moments out of nothing so it has to be 100 per cent for the 90 minutes,” the Blessington native said on Sunday.
“It’s rare but I felt like I got one up on her with the Irish team in Tallaght and that is something that I will carry forward with me.
“Listen, a team isn’t shaped around one player. We didn’t go out to say let’s piss [Kerr] off a bit [in 2021]. It’s how we play, it’s how we defend, how we stick together, close off players and threats from where it comes.”
Harry Regan may come from Cork but his granddaughter will be doing backflips if she helps to break Irish hearts.