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On a field the women's team was put to the test. His initial intention was not to watch the girls play, but he was attracted by a 13-year-old who could escape in any space. She was fast, athletic and endowed with a "raw talent". She was, he says, exceptional.
Although his coach Despitovski was surprised by his rise to women's football, Kerr has already been described as "total shit" during his first season in the sport.
To understand Kerr's portrayal of his young age, you need to look a little deeper into how the best player Australia has produced came to play this magnificent game.
Kerr was also a talented player from the AFL. At home, she took out imaginary bullets and trained with her three brothers. She was the only girl to play in men's teams until she reached the end of the road at the age of 12.
As gender differences became too pronounced, Kerr turned to football, a foreign sport to the AFL community in which she was raised.
If there had been a way for girls in the AFL, Kerr admitted that his life would have taken a different turn. "I would have missed all that," she told reporters on the eve of the Women's World Cup. "The carpet was ripped under me," she said while she was forced to stop practicing the sport of childhood in which she shone.
For a sport she did not immediately fall in love with, Kerr's progress was surprising. Aged 15 and 150 days, she made her international debut, becoming the youngest scorer in the W-League – the Australian Premier League – and voted player of the year.
Although she has previously announced her intention to retire at age 21, Kerr is still playing and Australia is grateful to her.
She splits her time between Australia and the United States and has played for the Chicago Red Stars in the US National Women's Football League (NWSL) and for Perth Glory in the W-League. She is the best scorer of all time in both leagues. Feats achieved despite three major injuries.
How did Kerr become so good so quickly after a bad first season? The work ethic explains Despitovski, who described the 25-year-old as an easy-to-train player because of the Australian's desire to "constantly improve".
But with the status of national hero, the responsibility does not come, but Kerr, easy going, and that Despitovski considers a joker, is the kind to let the hopes of a nation weigh on his shoulders.
"It's a very bubbly person, nothing disturbs her," he says. "She comes to a training session and takes the girls we have on her team under her wing and tries to present her work ethic.
"Even at age 25, she is very mature and tries to pbad it all on to the younger generation."
In January, Alen Stajcic, the coach who guided the Matildas to the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup and a fourth-place finish in the world, was surprisingly sacked and replaced by Ante Milicic.
One of Milicic's first decisions as the new boss of the Matildas was to make his star player the captain. It was an appointment that Despitovski considered as clever, because it is not only the speed and imprudence in front of the goal that characterize Kerr, but also his leadership.
"It does not lead with words or anything like that, it leads by the action on the ground," Despitovski said of a player who scored in his match. openness against Italy.
Kerr admitted that the shape of the team over the past two years had resulted in his own pressure, both negative and positive. With unprecedented success comes the wait.
"The biggest change for myself and my team is advertising around the team," said Kerr, who was in his tenth international year, at CNN Sport before the tournament.
"The interest in the last World Cup team so far is day and night, and that's the bad thing, but I think it's mostly positive.
"Everyone was behind us and loved the way we were playing, but with that pressure, the pressure of having to perform – in the year of everyone behind us, we had so many good results and that's all. what people want from us, we like that, we have great expectations, but it's new for everyone to have this kind of pressure and not to disappoint people. "
Although Kerr's personality allows her to endure most things, her maturity and experience have also helped her adapt to the mental pressures inherent in the sporting profession.
She admitted to having changed her way of approaching a match. In her youth, she was playing an upcoming game again and again, but this approach ended up playing with her mind. These days, she tries not to think too much.
"I like to keep calm on match day.I am rather scared.It's just finding a balance between concentration and feeling relaxed before the game and supporting my teammates", a- she declared.
Kerr's ability to withstand the stress of leadership will be put to the test on Thursday in Montpellier against a Brazilian team that has scored three goals in front of the newcomers, Jamaica, in its opening match.
As France progresses in the balance, a nation looks forward to seeing what its intrepid player capable of winning, a million dollars, can do.
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