The Matildas captain has joined one of the world’s most exclusive luxury watch brands, sharing candid insights into the sacrifices required to succeed at the highest level of world football.
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Australian football superstar and Matildas captain Sam Kerr has joined one of the world’s most exclusive luxury watch brands, reflecting on the sacrifices behind a career at the pinnacle of professional sport and revealing she only signed with her new club last week.
As Richard Mille’s first and only Australian partner, Kerr has joined an elite group of global athletes, artists and innovators associated with one of the world’s most prestigious watchmakers.
Speaking in Sydney, the 32-year-old reflected on her next chapter, the extraordinary growth of women’s football and the personal sacrifices required to reach the top of the game.
Founded in 2001, Richard Mille has built a reputation for producing some of the world’s most technically advanced and exclusive timepieces. The Swiss watchmaker is renowned for its use of ultra-lightweight materials, Formula One-inspired engineering and limited-production watches that often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars and, in some cases, more than $1 million.
Its ambassadors include tennis great Rafael Nadal, Formula One stars Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, actress Michelle Yeoh and sprint champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
During the Sydney event, Kerr wore the Richard Mille RM 07-04 Automatic Sport, a lightweight model featuring a pink case, blue strap and skeletonised movement. Designed for active lifestyles, the watch reflects the brand’s philosophy of combining high-performance engineering with luxury craftsmanship.
For Kerr, becoming the brand’s first Australian partner is a source of considerable pride.
“Of course, being the only Australian is incredible to me,” she said. “I am very proud to be Australian and I like to put Australia on the map.”
The announcement comes as Kerr prepares for the next stage of her football career following her departure from Chelsea after six-and-a-half years.
While speculation around her future has been mounting for months, Kerr revealed a decision was only finalised recently.
“Everyone thinks that it was decided and I’ve known that (it was) reported that I’d signed somewhere in April, but honestly, I only signed my contract on Wednesday last week,” she said.
“I really hadn’t decided what I was going to do until last week.”
Kerr said she expects details of her new club to be announced around the beginning of July once her Chelsea contract officially concludes.
Despite her excitement about what lies ahead, she admitted leaving one of the world’s biggest football clubs has been emotional.
“I am really sad about it,” she said. “It’s been my home for 6.5 years. I have so many good memories there. I have so many amazing teammates. I’m sad to leave.
“It sucks to leave such a big club like Chelsea too, but it comes to an end to everything, right?”
The 32-year-old also reflected on the transformation of women’s football during her career, describing the Matildas’ rise from relative obscurity to household-name status as one of her proudest achievements.
“What the Matildas have done over the last four or five years has been incredible,” she said.
“The most important thing for me is that you leave the game in a better place.”
Kerr noted that when she began playing, there were few professional pathways for women, limited sponsorship opportunities and crowds that bore little resemblance to those regularly attending matches today.
“We are a part of that generation that still knows what it was like when there was no one in the crowd,” she said.
Today, she said, crowds of tens of thousands remain something the team never takes for granted.
“Even last night we had 20,000 on a Tuesday night nearly. That’s special to us,” she said.
“We feel very lucky that people come out and spend their money and come to a game and watch us.”
Yet behind the accolades, sponsorships and sold-out stadiums, Kerr said there have been significant personal sacrifices.
“I’ve been living out of home since I was 17 years old. I’ve missed a lot of my family’s life,” she said.
“I’ve missed a lot of weddings. I’ve missed funerals. I’ve missed so many things that people don’t see.”
Kerr revealed she was unable to return home for her grandmother’s funeral last year because of football commitments.
“You have to love what you’re doing. You have to want to sacrifice,” she said.
“Everyone makes sacrifices, of course, and what I do is a massive privilege, but there comes a lot of sacrifice with it.”
Away from football, Kerr said Australia remains central to her identity despite spending much of her adult life overseas.
“I think we take for granted in Australia the beaches, the ocean, the open spaces,” she said.
As she prepares for a new club, a new season and a new role with Richard Mille, Kerr said she remains motivated by the same passion that first drew her to the game as a teenager.
“It was really organic,” she said of her relationship with the luxury watchmaker.
“It’s a real family brand.”
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Apple closed above a $5 trillion market valuation for the first time, capping Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure and setting a high bar for incoming CEO John Ternus, as the company faces growing pressure to strengthen its AI capabilities and sustain growth.
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Apple AAPL 0.50%increase; became the second company to close above the $5 trillion mark on Wednesday, capping the Tim Cook era, and posing an implicit challenge to new Chief Executive John Ternus.
The iPhone-maker’s shares closed at a record, just enough to push the company’s market capitalization into territory that only chip colossus Nvidia occupies. Apple’s market value has surpassed $5 trillion six times previously during intraday trading, but it had never closed above that level, which it squeaked past on Wednesday, ending the day at $5.005 trillion according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Cook’s act will be tough to follow. During his 15-year tenure as CEO, which ended Aug. 31, Apple’s market capitalization multiplied by a factor of 13. He nearly quadrupled the number of iPhones sold annually. He grew its highly profitable services business from $10 billion annually to more than $100 billion. He launched the Apple Watch and AirPods, which together generate more than $30 billion a year. He poured Apple’s cash into more than $1 trillion worth of share buybacks and dividends.
Today, Apple shares trade at a premium compared with the overall S&P 500 even though the company’s revenue growth rate is slower than the index’s average. That is because the company’s shares are viewed as safe, and its business predictable, say analysts.
A key to Apple’s success under Cook is how it has limited capital spending, juicing the company’s returns for investors and greatly reducing the risks of its business. That has never been more apparent than during the AI build-out, when big tech rivals have rushed to spend gargantuan sums on data centers while Apple has focused on its core businesses making devices and selling high-margin services for them.
Apple investors are so confident in its business that they have driven up its shares despite big cost increases that threaten profit margins. The cost of memory and storage chips inside iPhones, Macs and iPads has skyrocketed as demand for those chips from data centers has led to shortages. Apple has responded by raising prices across its device lineup, including for older model iPhones that would typically get a price cut.
In theory, such a move could hurt Apple since iPhone buyers might wait longer to upgrade their devices. Yet since the first wave of price increases Apple shares have jumped 25%.
In part, that is because investors think Apple device buyers will pay the higher prices, enabling Apple to generate as much or more in total profits even if margins are down, said Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan. He added that Apple’s new foldable iPhone Duo is likely to be popular and that the new Siri AI will prompt iPhone upgrades.
AI has long been viewed as Apple’s Achilles’ heel. The company failed in its efforts to build its own frontier model, and it also allowed its Siri assistant to fall far behind rivals. ChatGPT revolutionized what smartphone users expect from chatbots.
Apple hopes to turn a corner with the new Siri AI. Built with Google’s help, Apple’s redesigned chatbot was released this fall. It still lags behind rival AI systems in key respects, though it has the advantage of being built directly into the device that many people already use, their iPhone. Apple also has access to more personal data, which could theoretically be used for compelling AI features, though new AI agents show the technology is advancing faster than Apple’s ability to keep up.
Tech rivals know how important it is to control the devices that people use to deliver their services. Perhaps most threatening to Apple, OpenAI is planning a family of AI-powered devices. It has poached hundreds of Apple employees to drive its device strategy. Apple responded in July by suing OpenAI, alleging it stole Apple trade secrets.
OpenAI has said it is “not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit” and alleged in a new legal filing Wednesday that Apple poached one of its own employees who took confidential files with him. Apple said in response that it had found no evidence supporting the new allegation.
AI could be the battleground where Ternus makes his mark, either ushering in a new era of innovation and growth for Apple or finally losing its status as the company that has defined how people interact with computers.
