Northern Super League
The six teams of the Northern Super League, the new professional women’s football league in Canada, are starting to sign players ahead of their launch in the Spring of 2025. We look at news from the six teams: AFC Toronto, Calgary Wild FC, Halifax Tides, Montreal Roses, Ottawa Tide and Vancouver Rise FC.
AFC Toronto
Forward Jade Kovacevic (30) was the club’s first ever signing. She has scored goals everywhere she has played. The London, Ontario (two hours west of Toronto) native played for Canada at U-17 and U-20 FIFA Women’s World Cups and in the U.S. at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She then played at Fanshawe College in her hometown of London and is the all-time Ontario Colleges Athletic Association leading scorer with 103 goals.
She was the top scorer for Roma Calcio Femminile in Italy in just half a season and at GYŐRI ETO FC in Hungary, scoring the club’s first ever goal. She holds the all-time scoring record in League1 Ontario with over 170 goals, earning five Golden Boot awards and four MVP titles. Most of her League1 career was with London City, though she also played the last two years with Vaughan Azzurri and then North Toronto Nitros.
She said about the new NSL: “I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for 6 years, and now that it’s finally here and we can all see it, it changes everything for players like me and those just starting their careers. Canada has so much untapped talent, and for too long, women have had to leave home to chase their soccer dreams. Now, with AFC Toronto and the Northern Super League, there’s finally a clear pathway for women and girls to stay, grow, and thrive right here in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). I couldn’t be more excited to kick off on home soil and to see how this will shape the future of women’s soccer in Canada.”
AFC Toronto has also signed forward Leah Pais—a native of suburban Mississauga, Ontario, as the team’s second player. She played in the States at Florida State University—winning the 2023 national title—as well as at the University of Pittsburg and the University of New York at Albany, where she scored 17 goals with 10 assists in 56 games. She also played in the summer amateur League1 Ontario with Vaughan Azzurri, where she was the Young Player of the year in 2019 and played professionally in Iceland with Throttur of Reykjavik earlier this year, scoring twice in 15 matches.
Canadian National Team midfielder Emma Regan (24) has joined AFC Toronto from Danish powerhouse, HB Koge, where she began in 2023 and made 32 appearances with three goals as the team won the league title. She played as a youth with the Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite REX program, where she was team captain from 2016-2018 and was named the 2015 Vancouver Whitecaps Most Promising Player and B.C. Soccer Youth Player of the Year.
At the University of Texas at Austin (2018-2022), she played 90 games, scored 4 goals, and recorded 6 assists as a four-year starter. Regan earned her first cap with the Canadian Women’s National Team in June 2018 during a friendly against Germany. She currently has four caps for Canada’s WNT. Regan started and completed 90 minutes in the recent 5-1 victory against South Korea on December 3rd, 2024.
The club also signed former Canadian Women’s Youth National Team defender Kaela Hansen (24), who represented Canada at both the U-17 and U-20 national team levels. She played for Canada at the 2016 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Jordan. Hansen played professionally for KuPS in Finland. Prior to that, she played at ŽFK Spartak Subotica in Serbia, winning both the Serbian Women’s Super League and the League Cup title. During her time in Europe, she also competed in the UEFA Women’s Champions League qualification phases with both clubs during the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 seasons. She played collegiately at the University of Kansas.
At the end of November, AFC Toronto signed Richmond Hill (suburban Toronto) native and St. Kitts & Nevis National Team midfielder Cloey Uddenberg (22 years old). She played collegiately at the University of Guelph in Ontario before moving to the University of South Alabama and Purdue University in the U.S. Internationally she captained the U-20 team for St. Kitts and Nevis, and competed in the World Cup and Olympic Qualifying tournaments with the senior side. In League1 Ontario, she played with Simcoe Rovers FC, earning back-to-back All-Star honors and was named the 2023 Midfielder of the Year.
AFC Toronto signed American center back Croix Soto (23) from the Houston Dash of the NWSL in November. AFC Toronto head coach Marko Milanovic said: “AFC Toronto is committed to building a winning team, and signing Croix Soto is a reflection of that vision. Croix is a player who brings not only defensive skill but also a winner’s mentality and professionalism. Her experience in the NWSL will be invaluable as we establish our identity and goals for the upcoming season. We are excited to see the impact she will have both on and off the pitch.”
Soto, originally from Pasadena, California played at the University of Oregon and then signed with Kansas City Current ahead of the 2023 NWSL season. With the Current, she made 12 appearances including 8 starts for Kansas City and played three regular season games with Houston in the 2024 season.
Another import signing is Japanese youth international Aoi Kizaki (26), who turned professional with Urawa Reds in 2016 and has made over 100 appearances in the Japanese Women’s Empowerment Professional Football League (WE League). She also played with Elfen Saitama, Sanfrecce Hiroshima, and most recently Tokyo Verdy Beleza. She played for Japan at both U-19 and U-20 levels.
Calgary Wild FC
Calgary Wild FC’s first player signing was Farkhunda Muhtaj (27), who is also the captain of the Afghanistan Women’s National Team; she is also a social rights activist who is known across sport, education and humanitarianism. She was a key figure in the evacuation of over 300 Afghans, including members of the Afghanistan Youth National Team, to Portugal after the Taliban’s return to power.
She continues to use sport to support refugee settlement in Canada through the Scarborough (Ontario) Simbas recreational soccer team, which she founded in 2020 to offer free recreational and wellness opportunities for newcomers, refugees, underprivileged and at-risk Muslim youth, to help them learn to connect with their communities and understand Canada through sport. She also founded Ayenda FC, which is the unofficial Afghan Youth National Football Team in 2021.
She said: “What I’m hoping to do is help individuals realize the human behind all the obstacles and difficulties, but also the resilience that comes with that, the determination to get out of those situations, and then also when they’re healing through that, how they can use sport to be a catalyst for change.”
Farkhunda Muhtaj came to Canada when she was two after her parents fled Afghanistan during the war and she was born in Pakistan as a refugee. She holds two degrees from York University where she captained the varsity women’s soccer team. She played for Fortuna Sittard in the Netherlands’ Eredivisie league and has also played in Turkey with Fatih Vatan and in League1 Ontario with Vaughn Azzuri and Durham Athletic.
Another Asian international with Canadian roots signing with Calgary Wild FC was Philippine international midfielder and captain Jackie Sawicki (32), who played in the 2023 WWC Finals games in New Zealand and captained Western United the past two years in the A-League in Australia, which made the Grand Final in 2022/23 as an expansion franchise. A native of Victoria B.C., she played at the University of Victoria (2010-2015) where she was an All-Canadian Team All-Star and team captain for her last few seasons. Sawicki played for the U-20 Canadian National Team while in college.
She also played club ball in Japan and Sweden and spent time with Poland’s WNT at a camp some years ago, before joining the Philippines team.
She explained her signing with Calgary: “When I began my professional career, there were no opportunities within Canada, so I left and never looked back. I truthfully never envisioned this league to launch during my career, so to be amongst the first group of players to give our female youth something to strive for, is really exciting. I hope this league will help raise awareness for gender equity in sport, but also help create greater connection with females in other professions. I can’t wait to help do my part in this mission.”
Earlier this year in an exclusive interview with TribalFootball.com (see more at: The Week in Women's Football: A-League top 6 review; chat with Jaclyn Sawicki on that Philippines NZ WC shock - Tribal Football), Jackie Sawicki discussed her plans after the end of the A-League Women 2023/24 season and she said that: “It’s open-ended right now. It gets tricky at the end of an A-League season as your body feels it needs time off and I have been going straight since before the World Cup. I do want to stay fit for the national team during the A-League off-season but I will play it by ear right now.”
The Calgary Wild FC’s signing of Sawicki is massive—she is an excellent interview, well-thought out and positive about her club sides and the Philippines WNT. With her experience playing for expansion side Western United, she will be instrumental in helping Calgary navigate their first season in the NSL.
Another international signing with Calgary is New Zealand international defender Meikalya Moore, who has played for the Football Ferns since 2013, totaling over 60 games. She played with New Zealand at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and at Tokyo 2020 and Brazil 2016. She captained New Zealand’s U-20 World Cup squads in 2016 and was on the 2014 roster. She famously scored a hat-trick of own-goals against the U.S. in February 2022 in a 5-0 friendly defeat in the She Believes Cup in her 50th full national team appearance.
Then Football Ferns head coach Jitka Klimkova seemed to lose some faith in her even though she was pivotal at the club level in England. She was named an alternate for New Zealand at the 2023 WWC Finals as a co-host but declined the role. Grace Wisnewski (22), who played for three seasons at Wellington Phoenix and became Lexington SC of the USL Super League’s first signing in June, replaced her on the Football Ferns side at the global tournament.
About her move to Canada, Moore said: “I love Canada as a country. I think there are a lot of similarities with New Zealand which is comforting! To be a part of the program as a whole, especially in its inaugural season, is quite special. I can’t wait to get started.”
Moore has played professionally for FC.1 Köln and MSV Duisburg in Germany, Liverpool FC in England—winning the Women’s Championship Trophy in England and promotion to the Women’s Super League—and Glasgow City FC of Scotland, where the team won a Scottish Women’s Premier League title in 2022-23.
Another international (each team can sign seven international imports) signing was Netherlands youth international defender Mijke Roelfsema (26), who played collegiately with Boston College and Rice University (Houston, Texas) and has played professionally at home with ADO Den Haag, in Cyprus with Apollon Ladies, in Denmark with AaB Fodbold and in the Republic Ireland earlier this fall with Treaty United. She previously played with Calgary Foothills in 2021 in the UWS League.
She explained about coming back to Calgary: “I played a couple of games with Calgary Foothills a few years ago. I really enjoyed the way the Canadian girls played and the team atmosphere. The coaches were already talking about a professional league in Canada at that time, and I had thought back then, this would be a very interesting and good opportunity. I was very excited when Calgary Wild FC reached out. It feels like everything has come full circle! It’s amazing to be the first team to represent a club and build something for the community and for the future.”
Roelfsema was a First Team All-American, a MAC Hermann Trophy Semi-Finalist for the award as the best college player of the season. She made her professional debut as a 16-year-old with the top flight ADO Den Haag club in the Netherlands (2015-2017), where she helped the team win the National Dutch Cup before going to college in the States.
Three other signings were natives of Calgary: goalkeeper Sarah Keilty-Dilling, defender Grace Stordy and wingback Caleigh Boeckx. Keilty-Dilling played at the University of Texas-El Paso between 2011 and 2015, where she became the all-time leader in games started (82), wins (41), and shutouts (20). Keilty-Dilling then joined FC Tucson of the WPSL in 2015 where she posted five shutouts and won the team MVP award and was named to the WPSL All-Star Team.
Keilty-Dilling then returned home in 2016 to play with the Calgary Foothills in the United Women’s Soccer (UWS) league, and was Team Captain and UWS Goalkeeper of the Year in 2022. Foothills made the championship game in 2019 and 2022 and added a League1 Alberta side as well in 2023. She represented Canada internationally at the 2017 World University Games and participated in U-20 and U-17 national camps in 2010.
Grace Stordy was with Calgary Foothills when they won the 2016 National Championship title and led her Calgary high school to a Divisional Championship in 2018. She played in the States at the University of Memphis Tigers. She also played professionally with SC Braga in the Portuguese first division.
Wingback Caleigh Boeckx also followed the “Call of the Wild” and signed with her hometown team. Boeckx, who was involved with the Canadian Women’s National Team program from 2017-2021, played pro last year with Treaty United in Ireland after playing at Rice University in Houston from 2018-22. Boeckx also played semi-professionally with Calgary Foothills in UWS.
She said about the Wild starting in her hometown: “The decision to play for the Wild FC is for my younger self. As a young girl in Calgary, I would have loved the chance to watch top-level soccer in my hometown, but that was not a possibility. Having a professional women’s team in Calgary is a game-changer for young girls in our city. This club will show them that dreams are valid and achievable, and it creates a pathway for them to see themselves thriving in the sport. It’s an honour to have the opportunity to give back to the place that shaped me, both as a person and an athlete.”
Midfielder Christie Gray (25) is a native of Vancouver who played in the Republic of Ireland this year, winning the FAI Cup Championship with Shelbourne F.C. in Dublin and has exceeded 50 appearances. Gray first played in Europe while on an international exchange for a semester at KEDGE Business School in Bordeaux, France in 2020 from Queen’s University Golden Gaels (Kingston, Ontario), scoring 28 goals and 16 assists in 54 games and won an OUA Championship title. She trained with Bordeaux’s division one team while she studies in France. After finishing college, she played in Sweden with RIK Karlskoga where she was the top goal scorer in 2022.
Off the field, the Winnipeg Jets National Hockey League defenseman and Calgary native Josh Morrissey became a founding investor in the Wild.
The team will play at McMahon Stadium, the home of the Canadian Football League (CFL) Calgary Stampeders while the 2024 Canadian Premier League men’s champions Calvary FC play at 6,000 capacity ATCO Field in the county.
Halifax Tides FC
The Halifax Tides FC first ever signing was Canadian 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist goalkeeper Erin McLeod (41). She represented Canada at the Olympic Games in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 and won Bronze in 2012. McLeod has had a distinguished club career, playing for teams including Vancouver Whitecaps FC (winning the W-League Championship in 2004 and 2006), Chicago Red Stars, Orlando Pride, and most recently, the Icelandic side Stjarnan in Iceland as well as with clubs in Sweden and Germany.
McLeod said: “I am incredibly excited to join the Tides and return to a city that holds a special place in my heart. Halifax has a wonderful soccer community, and I can’t wait to contribute my experience to the team and support the growth of women’s soccer on the East Coast.” She has worked camps in Halifax.
The team’s head coach is Lewis Page (57), who has coached the men’s and women’s side at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, PEI. He was an assistant coach for the Canadian U-17 WNT for over a decade (2000-2011) and an assistant with the full team in 2011. Kennedi Herrman will be the lead assistant coach. She played collegiately at Armstrong State University in Savannah, Georgia. Herrman won multiple League1 Ontario women’s titles at North Mississauga Soccer Club and also coached York University’s women’s varsity team.
Montreal Roses FC
French international midfielder Charlotte Bilbault (34) is the team’s first import. She is from Saint-Doulchard, France, and played for top tier sides Montpellier, Paris FC, and Bordeaux. She has earned 56 caps for the French national team, scoring two goals and competing in two FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cups.
A Montreal native is coming home after playing four seasons in the Arkema Premiere Ligue in France—forward Latifah Abdu (23). She has played at home at Vanier College in Montreal and in the Première ligue de soccer du Québec (PLSQ) with the Lakers du Lac Saint-Louis and CS Monteuil in 2018 and 2019, respectively. After a year in France with Soyaux in 2020, she returned to Montreal to play with CS Mont-Royal Outremont of the PLSQ and won the Golden Boot award. She returned to France and played with Metz, Strasbourg, Dijon FCO and last season with En Avant Guingamp. She has been capped once by Canada last year against Australia on December 1 in a 5-0 win for Canada in Victoria, B.C.
Goalkeeper Gabrielle Lambert (30) is from Sainte-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Lambert played at the L'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, where she earned Athlete of the Year honors and Canadian All-Star recognition. Lambert played in Europe with SC Freiburg in Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga—including starting in the German Cup Final at the end of the 2022-23 season, losing to Wolfsburg 4-1— as well as at St-Étienne and Montpellier in France.
The team’s sporting director will be France international Marinette Pichon (49), who earned 112 caps (with 81 goals) and played in the WUSA with the Philadelphia Charge in 2002 and 2003, scoring 24 goals in 36 games (see more in: The Week in Women's Football: Hayes ends Morgan's USA career; Canada launch new comp - TribalFootball.com). Montreal’s new head coach is Robert Rositoiu, who was born in Romania and emigrated at age 11 to Canada.
He coached AS Blainville’s women’s team in Ligue1 Québec and won league and cup titles in 2021 and 2022 and the Women’s Inter-Provincial Championship (in 2022). Until just recently, he was Head Coach of MLS NEXT U-16 (men) at the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy. Rositoiu holds an A Diploma from Canada Soccer and is completing a Master’s in High Performance Football at Barcelona’s MBP School of Coaches. He is fluent in French, English, Spanish and Romanian.
Off the field in early October, Montreal unveiled its name and branding: the Roses de Montreal.
Ottawa Rapid
The Rapid appointed Katrine Pedersen (47), who played over 200 internationals for her native Denmark, as their head coach. Pedersen, a member of the Danish Fodboldens Hall of Fame and a three-time Danish Women’s Player of the Year, joins the club after serving in a talent development role at the Danish Football Association—she was an assistant coach for Denmark’s full women’s national team from 2015-21. She won a title in England with Fulham FC in 2002-03 when the team was fully professional for a short time when all of their competitors were either amateur or semi-professional. She also played in Norway with Asker and Stabaek, in Sweden with Djurgarden of Stockholm and Adelaide United in Australia in the 2014/15 season.
The city of Ottawa has a number of sports teams, including Atletico Ottawa of the Canadian Premier League (men’s Division 2 league in North America—they are owned by Atletico Madrid in Spain), the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) Ottawa Charge and the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Ottawa Senators. The Ottawa Fury was a standard bearer of the former USL W-League from 2000 through the 2014 season—missing the playoffs only in their first three years while winning the league title in 2012 and losing in the League Final on three other occasions.
Vancouver Rise FC
Vancouver Rise FC named Anja Heiner-Moller (46) as their first head coach. She is a UEFA Pro licensed coach and most recently was the head coach of Denmark’s U-19 women’s national team. She has also coached in the Danish women’s league as a head coach and assistant coach. She returns to Vancouver after spending three years working as an academy coach with Vancouver Whitecaps FC and North Shore Girls Soccer Club from 2018 to 2020.
During her playing career, the former midfielder represented Denmark from U-16 to the senior level and played 44 national team games, including the 2001 UEFA Women’s EURO tournament. At the club level, she played in more than 250 matches for Danish clubs Brøndby IF, Odense Boldklub, and Hillerød G&I, including playing in the UEFA Champions League. She is married to Richard Heiner-Moller, who coached Canada’s Women’s National Team from 2018-2020, moving up from an assistant role when John Herdman moved from the WNT to coach the Canadian men’s side.
Sporting Director Stephanie Labbé, who as a goalkeeper won 86 caps for Canada and the Gold Medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020 and a NWSL title in 2019 with North Carolina, is a very savvy hire by the club. She also leads the Vancouver Whitecaps Girls Elite program. She also played for years in Sweden and briefly with Paris St. Germain in France in 2021-22.
One of her former teammates—recently retired icon Christine Sinclair—is part of the ownership group, along with Greg Kerfoot, the longtime owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS. Kerfoot was a key supporter of Canada’s WNT during the Even Pellerud coaching years of 1999-2008, in which the national team was based in Vancouver and Pellerud led the side to fourth place in the 2023 Women’s World Cup in the U.S. and a first ever Olympics Games Finals in 2008 in China.
General NSL League News
The Northern Super League released details of its Standard Player Agreement, which sets a new benchmark in professional women’s soccer and features benefits that rank among the top leagues worldwide. Some key highlights of the league’s standard player contract include:
Guaranteed contract terms for player security.
A minimum salary of $50,000 CND (US$34,600), with no maximum salary cap for designated players. This provides competitive compensation, ranking among the top global leaders.
No draft and no trades without player consent, ensuring athletes have complete control over their careers, with free agency granted following the expiration of contracts.
Comprehensive mental health services and maternity/fertility benefits designed to meet and exceed the standards set by FIFA and ensure players' well-being.
Player contracts will count towards a Club’s $1.6 million CND salary cap (US$1.1 million).
The minimum salary level is greater than other women’s leagues in Europe. Spain’s Liga F top-flight women’s league has a minimum salary of approximately $25,000, and in Italy, it’s less than $40,000 while the NWSL minimum is at US$50,000 for 2025—up from $35,000 last season and only $22,000 in 2021. (In 2020, the NWSL had a maximum player salary of $50,000). The NSL’s pay structure ensures that Canadian players can earn a fair and competitive wage without having to leave home.
Clubs will have between 20 and 25 players on their rosters, with up to seven international players permitted per team. In addition, the NSL will implement a Designated Player rule, similar to Major League Soccer, allowing teams to sign marquee players at salaries higher than the salary cap limit.
The NSL will feature a balanced 25-match regular season per club, with each club playing home and away fixtures from April through November. At the end of the regular season, the top four clubs will qualify for the NSL Playoffs. The two semi-final winners will advance to the NSL Championship, a marquee event to be hosted at a predetermined venue.
Starting in 2026, the NSL champions will also earn the right to compete in the prestigious CONCACAF Women’s Champions Cup, pitting them against the best clubs from North and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. This exposure on the international stage will only elevate the league’s profile further.
In 2025, NSL matches will be easily accessible to fans across the country, thanks to a groundbreaking broadcasting deal with TSN and CBC. Additionally, all matches will be available via streaming platforms on NSL, TSN, and CBC, ensuring that no fan misses a moment. French-speaking audiences will be able to catch all Montréal Roses matches on RDS and select games on Radio-Canada Sports (SRC).
Lebanese youth international midfielder Celine Haidar is injured from an Israeli bomb strike
The excellent World Soccer writer for Asia, John Duerden, last month wrote about the tragic news that Lebanese youth international midfielder Celine Haidar (19) was seriously wounded during one of the recent Israeli bombing attacks on Beirut. She suffered a head injury from shrapnel that came from an Israeli bomb and was placed into an induced coma in the hospital. Her family, along with approximately 1 million others, fled from South Beirut, which was targeted by Israel. She returned to the area for football training and her schooling.
She won the West Asian U-18 Championship in 2022 at home in Lebanon and was called into the full national camp ahead of a friendly with Iran scheduled for October, but all football was halted in the country due to the recent bombing campaign by Israel. Some have petitioned FIFA to suspend Israel because of their attack, citing Haider’s injury in particular.
At the club level, Haidar played for SAFA of Beirut when the team won the 2022 West Asian Women’s Club Championship in Jordan. The club wound up its women’s side at the end of the 2021-22 season and she moved to Beirut Football Academy for the 2022-23 season. BFA went undefeated to win the league title in 2023-24 and Haider was named team captain in September.
This column will look in more depth at Lebanon’s women’s national team in early 2025, as they have been looking to add more of their diaspora—including Wellington Phoenix’s Tiana Jabar, who we are scheduled to interview early in 2025—as they hope to qualify for the 2026 Asian Women’s Cup in 2026 in March in Australia, which will double as the qualifiers for the 2027 Women’s World Cup Finals in Brazil in 2027.
Wael Chehayeb, executive committee member of the Lebanon Football Association, told international media outlet Deutsche Welle, that: “Women’s football in Lebanon was progressing amazingly before the Israel attacks.”
Our prayers are with Celine Haidar that she recovers fully from her tragic injury. We hope to see her on the field for her club—and that she can fulfill her dream of playing overseas—and country and that we can someday interview her about her thoughts on the growth of the sport in her country.
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