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Kerr and Bartel make Liverpool loan moves

Liverpool FC Women have completed the signings of Sam Kerr and Julia Bartel on loan until the end of the season.

The 25-year-old midfielder joins the Reds from her current club FC Bayern Munich where she picked up the Frauen-Bundesliga title in her first season last year.

Kerr joined Munich in May 2023 after several successful years in her native Scotland, picking up four league titles with Glasgow City before a transfer to Glasgow Rangers, who she helped to their first title in 2022 and a Scottish Cup in 2023. She made her first senior international appearance in 2020 and has since become a regular in the Scottish Women’s team, being named Scotland Player of the Year in 2022.

Kerr joined her new teammates at the AXA Melwood training centre this week and spoke of how much she’s looking forward to the months ahead.

“I’m really excited for my time here,” said Kerr. “I spoke to Matt (Beard) and obviously the club before I came, and I love their ambitions and am really excited to get started.

“I feel like my career in the last few years has really changed a lot. Obviously moving to Germany was a challenge in itself, being in that intense environment with world class players has been really good for my development.

“With the national team, I’ve grown into the role which has been really good and I’m hoping to bring my experience and the things I’ve learned over the last couple of years to Liverpool in this loan move.”

It will be Kerr’s first spell in the Barclays Women’s Super League and she’s looking forward to the challenge offered by a league which goes from strength to strength.

“The WSL is the most competitive league, I mean people dream to play here so I’m so excited to be involved in that. For me as a player, what I think I can bring to the team is some leadership qualities, a lot of energy and passion, and bring that on the pitch in every game and every training session.”

LFC Women manager Matt Beard has been a long term admirer of Kerr and is delighted to welcome her to his squad. Beard said: “We nearly had a deal done for Sam before she went to Bayern Munich. She’s a player we’ve watched from afar for a long time and obviously have followed her progress at Bayern.

“We’re probably getting a more complete player now, a little bit older with experience of playing for one of the biggest European women’s football teams.

“She took herself out of her comfort zone in going to a new country with a new language.

“Hopefully we’ll use her international experience to help bolster the squad and she can play in the holding role as well as in the ‘8’ so it gives us a little bit of flexibility.

“She’s great on the ball and is aggressive which is just what we needed I think.”

Kerr will wear the number 24 shirt during her time at LFC Women.  

Spanish U23 international Bartel joins the Reds from her parent club Chelsea after a move from Barcelona last summer. The 20-year-old made several appearances for the Barcelona first team as well as being a mainstay of their ‘B’ team, making more than 100 appearances and helping them to back-to-back league titles.

Internationally she has excelled in tournament football with Spain, winning European U19 titles in 2022 and 2023, scoring a late winner in the final of the former and being selected to the Team of the Tournament in the latter. She was also instrumental in Spain winning the U20 World Cup in 2022 playing every game in the tournament.  

The player herself is looking forward to a new phase of her career on Merseyside and believes it is somewhere she can flourish. Bartel said: “I’m very happy to be here in Liverpool in a big club and I’m looking forward to starting.

“I think Liverpool is one of the big teams in this league and I think the style of play of this club can be great for me and I’m so excited to start the season here.

“It’s been a change in my career in a new country but I’m happy here, it’s a new league, a different league from Spain and I think I’m adapting here.”

Asked about what qualities fans can expect to see from her on the pitch, she added: “I’m a player who wants to have the ball, an assertive player and I want to give these things to a team.

“I want to enjoy the training and matches with the team, to help and to win as many matches as possible with this team.”

Manager Matt Beard believes he has secured a player with the ability to provide a positive boost to his squad for the next few months. He said: “Julia is a very gifted player technically who can pass off both feet and, having had the education of growing up in the Barcelona Academy and playing with Barcelona,  we're getting a very tactically astute player.