Two of the top stars of the 2023 Women’s World Cup have revealed intimate photos from their recent engagement, prompting an outpouring of well wishes from across the football world.
Australian Sam Kerr drops to one knee in front of her delighted fiancé, US national team star Kristie Mewis, in the first slide of their Instagram post. Another photo shows an animated Kerr raising her right arm in triumph after apparently getting the answer she was looking for.
The Instagram post also includes a photo of Mewis’ diamond engagement ring: a single-stone oval-cut prong setting atop a yellow gold band.
No location is given, but the couple appears to be standing in front of a Mediterranean palazzo in a warm-weather destination. The caption does include a date, September 1, indicating that the couple has been engaged for almost three months now. Kerr and Mewis confirmed their engagement earlier this month, but photos of the latter’s proposal had only surfaced on Tuesday.
The post received thousands of comments, many of which were written by the couple’s club and national teammates.
Australian Sam Kerr falls to one knee in front of her, Kristie Mewis of the USWNT
Kerr is seen raising her right arm in triumph after getting the answer she was looking for
The Instagram post also includes a photo of Mewis’ diamond engagement ring: a single-stone oval-cut prong setting atop a yellow gold band
Australian Ellie Carpenter, Mackenzie Arnold, Tameka Yallop, Emily Gielnik and Clare Wheeler wished the couple well, as did the Matildas team account.
Similarly, Kerr’s Chelsea teammates also responded with congratulations, including England national team players Millie Bright, Erin Cuthbert and Lauren James.
Mewis’ American teammates were also present, including Catarina Macario, who plays for Chelsea alongside Kerr.
Many of the responses were simple emojis. The USWNT, for example, responded with a series of blue hearts.
Somewhat surprisingly, it was Australian Kerr who advanced furthest at the 2023 World Cup in her home country, as the Matildas finished fourth.
Defending champions USWNT fell to Sweden on penalties in the round of 16, leading to the dismissal of Vlatko Andonovski as head coach. Mewis did connect after one penalty, but Sweden made the last three to advance.
The post received thousands of comments, many of which were written by the couple’s club and national teammates, such as Catarina Macario (below)
Kerr currently plays for Chelsea, which will be managed by the next USWNT manager, Emma Hayes, until the end of the season. Mewis, meanwhile, is coming off an NWSL title with Gotham FC.
Mewis, 30, previously shared the happy news with People magazine and thanked Kerr for being by her side.
“(She’s) my biggest supporter, she always listens to all my crazy antics,” she said.
Rumors are swirling that Kerr and Mewis were engaged after Australia’s biggest football star posted a photo on social media in September of her wearing a gold ring on her wedding finger.
The Matildas striker included the photo in an Instagram post, accompanied by the simple caption ‘September people x’, while two other images show a jeweled ring on her friend Mewis’ left ring finger.
Good wishes poured in from across the football world, including some notable Matildas
Photos taken on Kerr’s birthday, September 10, also appeared to show Mewis hiding her ring finger.
The pair celebrated Kerr’s 30th birthday with a photo from their dinner, which showed the Australian with her hand wrapped around Mewis’ waist – and the American’s left hand carefully positioned to avoid showing any ring.
“Happy birthday my love,” she captioned the post.
Fans also got a glimpse of the ring on Mewis’ hand during a chance sneak peek when Mewis was featured in a promotional clip for the EA FC 24 video game in mid-September. Mewis’ left hand appeared to be purposely hidden in recent photos of the couple as speculation reached a fever pitch.
Fans called the photo of Kerr with the gold band a “soft engagement launch,” with one writing: “Ahahah the ring congratulates Sam” and another asking: “So where’s the proposal video?”
Matildas superstar Sam Kerr and her long-term girlfriend Kristie Mewis have confirmed they are engaged. Mewis, 30, shared the happy news with People magazine on Friday, calling Kerr her “biggest supporter.” Take a photo together
Mewis followed up earlier that month with a post to her Instagram Story, showing what appears to be her hand holding Kerr’s.
Once again, most of the fingers on Mewis’ left hand are not visible in the photo, leading some to believe she may have hidden a ring.
The couple met while both playing for rival clubs in the American League in 2019.
They spoke online for almost four months during the 2020 COVID lockdown before spending two weeks in quarantine together, where they quickly fell in love.
November 2021 marked the first time the pair – who last met competitively at the Tokyo Olympics – have played against each other since becoming ‘Instagram officials’ in August that year.
The pair continued their romance ahead of the 2021 Olympics, where – following the US’s defeat of Australia in the semi-finals – they were photographed together.
Their on-field embrace made headlines as Kerr’s split with her former long-time partner – another American club player, Nikki Stanton – had not yet become public.
November 2021 marked the first time the pair played against each other since becoming ‘Instagram officials’ in August of that year.
Their international romance has since been extensively documented on social media, with both women amassing hundreds of thousands of followers.
‘We are not private people. I enjoy sharing my story. I like to share who I am outside of football,” Kerr told British publication Gaffer earlier this year.
“Football is 5 percent of my life,” she added.
Kerr and Mewis are the undisputed power couple in women’s football and the pair have amassed thousands of followers since their relationship blossomed.
Kerr previously dated his longtime girlfriend Nikki Stanton for almost eight years before quietly splitting in 2021.
It is understood Kerr told friends at the time that she and Stanton, who is a high-profile American footballer himself, had ‘fallen out of love’.
Kerr reportedly abruptly ended their long-term romance ahead of the Tokyo Games.