The Northern Super League story, told by three Canadian legends involved
A new era for women's soccer in Canada gets under way in Vancouver on Wednesday. Diana Matheson, Erin McLeod and Stephanie Labbé all discuss what it means for the country...
“It’s something in my career I never thought was possible or thought would happen, so to be so close to kick off now, it’s pretty surreal.”
The words of former Canada national team goalkeeper Stephanie Labbé, speaking about the impending historic birth of the new Northern Super League, the nation’s first ever professional women’s soccer league.
Labbé, who earned 86 caps for her country, is one of several legends of the country involved in the new six-team league across various capacities, and as General Manager of Vancouver Rise, Labbé will have involvement in Wednesday night’s opener when they host Calgary Wild in the city’s historic BC Place.
Christine Sinclair, one of Canada’s greatest ever players, is also involved in the club, while others, such as Diana Matheson, helped to get the league off the ground as co-founder.
Others, like Desiree Scott, Quinn and Erin McLeod, all national team veterans, have returned home to play in the league, and while an initial six teams mean it is baby steps, there’s a well-earned sense of excitement across the country.
“Those are the names who are actively involved,” says Labbé, continuing, “but I don’t know if you can put an emotion on how this feels. Surreal, excitement, pride, but on the flip there’s a feeling of ‘I can’t believe it’s taken this long’, but there’s so many who have paved the way.
“Players in the 90s, the 00s, the players who fought for Canada to even have a national team, the first players who went and played professionally overseas, all these people who continue to fight for women to play sport. Yes, we’re years behind other countries, but we’re excited to now be in the conversation and hopefully propel ourselves to the top end of that conversation pretty quickly.”
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As Labbé alludes to, it’s been one of the curiosities of Canada for many years now. Until last summer, the country was the defending Olympic gold medallists, regularly competing at the business end of major tournaments, doing it all without a professional domestic league.
In many respects, the fact many were forced to seek top leagues abroad and many who went into the NWSL, such as the aforementioned Scott and Quinn, possibly aided the national team’s strength in depth, but potentially hindered their youth pathway, and now the country has the opportunity to develop its own players within its own borders.
“The reason Canada has been able to do well at national team level is that’s where all the investment and wealth was,” says Matheson, one of the most capped players of all time with 206 appearances for Canada, and co-founder of the NSL alongside business partner Thomas Gilbert.
“Hosting the World Cup in 2015, Canada did enough to invest in that space and a big enough player pool, even with the limited pathway available, we had enough of that top tier talent to compete on the biggest stages.
“Now, all the investment is going into the professional game, the leagues, that’s where players now spend most of their time and we knew it was only a matter of time here in Canada that we were going to fall further behind unless we started to invest in that domestic game and build more professional pathways and have more talent come out of our own country.
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