Northern Super League News Ahead of April Kickoff
We have been following the Northern Super League since it started signing players in the second half of 2024 and below for reference is our previous update from February of 2025: The Week in Women's Football: Northern Super League preview; Stoney named Canada coach; new UEFA comp - TribalFootball.com.
Each team can field up to eight international players. Some players may be considered domestic for NSL purposes (including Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or refugees) while still representing other countries in international competitions. The non-Canadian signings for this season (38 in total thus far) are:
United States 16
New Zealand 3
Korea Republic 3
Sweden 3
Japan 2
Nigeria 2
Norway 2
Australia 1
Finland 1
France 1
Iceland 1
Netherlands 1
Philippines 1
Wales 1
Imports across each team are registered as nationals of the following countries:
AFC Toronto (6): U.S. (2), Finland (1), Japan (1), Korea Republic (1), Nigeria (1)
Calgary Wild FC (6): U.S. (2), New Zealand (2), Australia (1), Netherlands (1)
Halifax Tides FC (5): U.S. (2), Iceland (1), Japan (1), New Zealand (1)
Montreal Roses FC (6): U.S. (5), France (1)
Ottawa Rapid (7): Korea Republic (2), Norway (2), Nigeria (1), Sweden (1), U.S. (1)
Vancouver Rise FC (8): U.S. (4), Sweden (2), Philippines (1), Wales (1)
Ten NSL players were called up to represent their countries in the February FIFA window, with four from Philippines, four from Canada and two from New Zealand. For the April window, eight players were brought into their national sides: with two representing Canada (2) and one each from Egypt, Korea Republic, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland and Wales:
Meikayla Moore—Calgary Wild (New Zealand) Feb/April
Jaclyn Sawicki—Calgary Wild (Philippines) Feb
Milly Clegg—Halifax Tides (New Zealand) Feb
Kaela Hansen—AFC Toronto (Philippines) Feb
Kaylee Hunter—AFC Toronto (Canada) Feb
April Lantaigne—AFC Toronto (Canada) Feb
Ivymae Perez—AFC Toronto (Philippines) Feb
Emma Regan—AFC Toronto (Canada) Feb/April
Samantha Chang—Vancouver Rise (Canada) Feb
Jessika Cowart—Vancouver Rise (Philippines) Feb/April
Choo Hyojoo—Ottawa Rapid (Korea Republic) April
Kayla Adamek—Ottawa Rapid (Poland) April
Quinn—Vancouver Rise (Canada) April
Nedya Sawan—Vancouver Rise (Egypt) April
Josie Longhurst—Vancouver Rise (Wales) April
AFC Toronto
Midfielder Emma Regan became the first NSL player to be a part of the starting XI for the Canadian Women’s National Team in their 1-1 tie against the People’s Republic of China in February at the Pinatar Cup in Spain. She came on as a substitute for the final half-hour in the 2-0 win over Mexico and started again in the 7-0 win over Chinese Taipei, subbing off after an hour.
Forward Mya Jones (23) was loaned by San Diego FC to AFC Toronto for the season. Jones was drafted by San Diego from the University of Memphis in the 2024 NWSL Draft and, in her rookie season, she made 19 regular season appearances and scored two goals for the Wave.
Midfielder Nyota Katembo (24) was born in Tanzania in a refugee camp after her parents fled war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, but grew up in the Montreal area, playing for FC Laval, AS Blainville and the Quebec Provincial side. She then played at the University of Portland for one season and finished at the University of Arizona, where she scored three goals in 46 matches. Katembo spent some time last summer with Indy Eleven of the USL W League, although her playing time was limited due to a knee problem. She hopes that playing in the NSL will help her break into a national team, either with Canada or DR Congo—she has already had discussions with officials of the DRC’s Football Association.
Calgary Wild FC
In late February, the Chicago Stars of the NWSL loaned forward Sarah Griffith to Calgary. She was drafted by the Stars in 2022 and finished her first season in the Windy City with two goals and one assist. In 2023 she had an assist in six regular season games. In 2024, she again had an assist in seven regular season matches and led the then Red Stars with a 91.67 percent passing accuracy in the final third on the season. The forward also scored a game-winning goal against the Washington Spirit July 31 in NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup play. Griffith re-signed with the Stars on a short-term contract in January 2025. She also played on loan with Newcastle Jets in Australia, scoring four goals in 11 games, during the 2022-23 season. She played collegiately at Purdue University in Indiana.
Defender Tilly James was the Trinity Western University (Langley, British Colombia is suburban Vancouver) Female Athlete of the Year in 2024 as well as a U-Sports All Canadian Second Team Member. She also played in the U.S. and New Zealand as a youth as her family lived in both countries. The Wild will be her first professional club.
Goalkeeper Stephanie Bukovec (29) grew up in Ontario but plays internationally for Croatia—she could also have played for Canada, Poland and Slovenia according to FIFA parentage rules. She played collegiately at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan and Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. She has played professionally in Croatia—winning two league titles at Split—as well as in Iceland, Netherlands, Sweden and was most recently with Standard Liege in Belgium.
Northern Ireland international goalkeeper Jacqueline Burns (28) played at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee. TribalFootball.com talked to her a few years ago ahead of the Irish qualifying for their first ever senior finals at the 2022 EURO Finals in England. She has played for clubs at home, in Iceland, Sweden and England. In the summer of 2024, she moved from Reading—who were demoted to the third division—to Bristol City.
Forward Danielle Steer (25) played for the University of British Columbia (2017-2022), where she was named most valuable player for the Thunderbirds. In 2021, she set the Canada West single-season goal record with 18, before topping the conference career points mark with 85 (57 goals and 28 assists in 97 games) the following season. The previous points record was 65. With Steer scoring in her final match in 2022, UBC won their first Canada West title in six years.
She was named to the 2017 Canada West All-Rookie Team, was a three-time Canada West First Team All-Star and a 2018 U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian in 2022. After graduating in 2022, Steer played with Varsity FC in League1 British Columbia for one year before signing her first professional contract with the Australian A-League Women club Western United. She returned to Canada at the conclusion of the season to rejoin her former team until the fall of 2023, when she signed with Fenerbahce of the Turkish Women’s Football Super League. She then moved to the Ireland Women’s Premier League to play with Treaty United last summer, scoring eight goals in 11 games.
Madison Wilson grew up in London, Ontario (two hours west of Toronto) and returns to Canada to play professionally in the NSL after a five-year stint in NCAA Division 1 soccer with both the University of Dayton and the University of Iowa. She helped the Hawkeyes make a Sweet 16 appearance last season in the playoffs.
Winger Khali Johnson (21) moved from Australia’s Western United, where she has scored eight goals in 18 league games this season thus far—tied for sixth most in the league. She played with Jaclyn Sawicki, a Victoria native who captained Western United for two of the club’s three seasons in the league, and they will be teammates again with the Wild. Johnson has been capped by Australia at the youth international level and played at the U-20 WWC last year in Colombia.
The Wild brought in a veteran center-midfielder from the NWSL in American Meggie Doughtery-Howard (29), who played eight NWSL seasons with the Washington Spirit, Orlando Pride, San Diego Wave and last season at Angel City FC, totaling 133 league matches. She played collegiately at the University of Florida, scoring 14 goals and 25 assists in over 90 games.
The Wild went to Denver, Colorado for pre-season training in March.
Halifax Tides FC
Swedish midfielder and former U-17 and U-19 national team player Sara Olai (25) joined the Tides for their first season. This is her first stint abroad as she has played at home with Linkoping, IK Upsalla in the Elitettan (second tier), as well as Djurgardens and IF Brommapojkarna in the Stockholm area, where she scored seven goals in 50 games in 2023 and 2024 for the latter side. Clubs in Italy had been interested in her when her first contract with Bromma expired after the 2023 season, but she stayed again for one season before heading to Canada.
Quebec native midfielder/defender Karima Lemire (26) signed with the Tides for 2025. She has played in Europe at Turbine Potsdam in Germany’s second division and at Clube de Albergaria in Portugal in Liga BPI (the top tier). She played for Canada at the 2014 U-17 Women’s World Cup at home, losing to Germany 2-0 in the Quarterfinals. She played collegiately in Quebec at Champlain College in Saint-Lambert and then with the Universite du Quebec a Montreal Citadins.
Halifax native and defender Annika Leslie signed with the Tides after playing at West Virginia University in the States. She played with Canada at multiple youth levels and at the 2022 FIFA U-20 WWC Finals in Costa Rica.
The Tides conducted a pre-season training camp in England, based at Melton Town FC.
Montreal Roses FC
Goalkeeper Anna Karpenko (22) signed with the Roses after playing at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. for her graduate season, following four campaigns at Harvard University in Boston. She is a native of Richmond Hill (suburban Toronto) in Ontario. She played for Canada at the youth level. At the senior level, she was on the roster for the 2024 SheBelieves Cup in the U.S. but did not play in any of the three matches.
American defender Julia Leas (23) also played at Georgetown University, scoring 16 goals in 100 appearances from 2019 through 2023. She then went to Damallsvenskan side Vittsjo in Sweden, scoring two goals in 24 matches in the 2024 season. At Vittsjo, she played with Canadian youth international forward Tanya Boychuk (24), who grew up in Edmonton and played collegiately at the University of Memphis. She also played in Iceland. With Vittsjo she scored seven goals in 25 games. In 2019 with the Calgary Foothills of the summer UWS, she scored eight goals in seven matches as the team reached the UWS league championship final.
French international midfielder Charlotte Bilbault arrived from Montpellier. She has been capped by France 56 times. She was the first international signing by the NSL in October and has played for Bordeaux and Paris FC, among other sides. This is her first club stint outside of France.
Ottawa Rapid
A NWSL loanee, American defender Jyllissa Harris is coming north to join the Ottawa Rapid for the 2025 NSL season. Harris was drafted by the Houston Dash with the No. 22 overall pick in the 2023 NWSL Draft and played in 21 games across two seasons. She played at the University of South Carolina and holds the NCAA record for most minutes played at the Division 1 level with 9,395 minutes across five seasons in 107 games (the third most in NCAA history) with 105 starts, 16 goals and 11 assists.
From Korea Republic comes attacking midfielder Lee Min-a, who is a full international and won nine WK league championships at home. She has 83 caps and 17 goals with the senior squad since her debut in February of 2012 against Korea DPR and appeared in all three of South Korea’s matches at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She was on the U-20 WWC Finals side that finished third in 2010 in Germany. Professionally she played for the Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels of South Korea’s WK league, which won five straight league titles (2013-2017) and was the KFA Women’s Player of the Year in 2017 after scoring 14 goals with 10 assists in 28 games.
She moved to Japan to join INAC Kobe Leonessa of Japan’s Nadeshiko League (at the time the first division league), where she scored five goals in 17 matches across two seasons. She rejoined the Red Angels in 2020 and won four more WK League titles (2020-2023). She joins Choo Hyo-Joo (24), who played with Lee at Incheon and the national team, and has also come to Ottawa. Choo is a veteran of the Korean national program since December of 2019, with four goals and seven assists from 47 matches. She appeared at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, the 2022 Asian Games (Hángzhōu) and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup (India, 2022).
She played last season with Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels of the WK League, scoring one goal with two assists in 18 games. She previously played with Suwon FC, where she scored 14 goals and added eight assists in 65 games over three seasons.
Canadian international pool forward Delaney Baie Pridham (27) joined the club after playing at Santa Clara University. Pridham began her professional career with ÍBV in the Besta deild kvenna, Iceland’s top-tier women’s football league, in 2021, scoring seven goals in 10 regular season matches. She then moved to Sweden’s Kristianstad DFF and made 40 appearances with six goals and two assists in a season and a half. In 2023, Pridham moved to Linköping FC, also in the Damallsvenskan, but was injured and missed the season. In 2024, she came back to score once in 19 league matches in Linkoping.
Canadian international pool goalkeeper Melissa Dagenis played at the University of Miami in Florida. Dagenais then moved to Portuguese club Damaiense in the first division Campeonato Nacional Feminino, where she made 14 appearances. Prior to joining Damaiense, Dagenais was called up to the Canadian national team camp in October 2023 but has yet to be capped.
Forward Kayla Adamek (30) was born in Ottawa and played at the University of Central Florida from 2013 to 2017, but plays internationally for Poland. She played last season with Reims in France’s first division, appearing in nine matches. She previously played with Vittsjo GFK in Sweden, Granadilla in Spain and with Spartak Subotica in Serbia. She was first capped by Poland in 2022 and has one goal in 19 full internationals.
Vancouver Rise
Forward Holly Ward (21) grew up in the Vancouver Whitecaps academy. She played at the University of Texas, scoring 17 goals in 91 games from 2021-24 and also played with Canada’s U-17 and U-20 women’s national teams, including at the 2022 U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica. She also played in the amateur League1 British Colombia with Varsity FC (now known as Nautsa’mawt FC, based in Vancouver) and in 2024 with Burnaby FC in the same league. She trained with Racing Louisville FC in the NWSL for the 2025 season but was not signed.
Another Vancouver area player to sign for Rise FC was North Vancouver native and goalkeeper Kirstin Tynan (22). She played at TSS Rovers in League1 BC and at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, who she helped win the national title in 2021. Sporting director Stephanie Labbe, who was a former Canadian national team goalkeeper and played for clubs in the U.S. and Sweden and won the Olympic Gold Medal at the 2020 Games in Tokyo, said: “We’re proud to welcome Kirstin to Vancouver Rise FC. She has proven herself as a goalkeeper at both the collegiate and League1 BC levels in Canada. Kirstin’s experience abroad training with Everton gave her valuable experience in a professional environment that will be a big asset in her transition into the professional game right here in Vancouver.”
In 2023, Tynan spent time training abroad with English Women’s Super League side Everton FC.
Another signing who has played in the Vancouver area was Canadian international defender and Vancouver Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy graduate Ariel Young (23), who they hope will be the first of what the club hopes will be many graduates advancing to their NSL side. From 2018 to 2019, Young played in the Whitecaps FC Girls Elite Academy in Vancouver. Earlier this year, the 23-year-old started her professional career with Fortuna Hjørring in Denmark’s top flight Elitedivisionen.
She played collegiately at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and, at the international level, made her debut for Canada’s senior women’s national team as a 16-year-old in 2017, subbing on in an international friendly versus the United States. In 2018, Young also represented Canada at the CONCACAF U-17 and U-20 Women’s Championship tournaments, and the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Uruguay. She grew up in Ottawa and played with the Nepean Hotspurs and Ottawa Fury locally.
Forward Nedya Sawan (22) is a native of Oregon who played at the Universities of Portland and Alabama. Through FIFA ancestry rules, she qualifies to play internationally for Egypt as well as the U.S. She was brought into a national team camp by Egypt this month (see above).
Vancouver Rise FC prepped for the season with a preseason camp in Portland, Oregon, alongside the Portland Thorns of the NWSL, where Rise investor and all-time international goal scoring leader Christine Sinclair played for over a decade; the Thorns have had many ties to Canadian soccer on the playing, coaching and front office side over the past few years.
The Rise also announced that they will play this season at historic Swangard Stadium in Suburban Burnaby. The stadium has been a focal point for the Vancouver area soccer community for over 50 years, with Canadian men’s and women’s national team games, Vancouver 86ers, Whitecaps, TSS Rovers and League1 BC finals and provincial competitions all held there.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey