Diana Matheson, Olympic soccer star and Northern Super League founder, is giving Canadian women a pro league of their own

BACK WHEN DIANA MATHESON was a star midfielder for Canada’s national women’s soccer team, plays were analyzed using magnets on tactical boards.

- KATIE UNDERWOOD

But in 2022, a year into her retirement, she found herself mapping out the country’s first pro women’s league on a bar napkin in Toronto’s west end with Thomas Gilbert, her partner at Project 8 Sports—the company they founded to bring the idea to life. Itwould be her biggest win yet, even bigger than her stealthy bronze-clinching kick at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The Northern Super League launched this spring, with franchises in six cities—including Montreal, Vancouver and Halifax—and ambitions for many more. Overdue? Maybe. Or maybe perfectly timed: thanks to the Professional Women’s Hockey League and, soon, Toronto’s own WNBA team, women’s sports are popping all the way off in Canada. Still in its infancy, the NSL has already drawn sponsors like Coca-Cola, team owners like Matheson’s former teammate Christine Sinclair— “Sinc” to her—and investors like track hot-shot Andre De Grasse. Forget exporting our female soccer greats to the States; we’re cheering for the home teams now. I spoke with Matheson days after she did just that, celebratory mimosa in hand, at the Montreal Roses’ first-ever home opener.

Take me back to the moment you stepped onto the field at BC Place for the Vancouver Rise match back in April—which just so happened to be the first-ever game of Canada’s first-ever women’s pro soccer league.

The day before, one of the Calgary players said it was like we were planning for our wedding. It goes by quickly, try to enjoy it, you're not going to be able to talk to every-one—it was all of those things. During the pre-game celebration, Christine Sinclair and I were on the field. The most emotional I got was when they introduced me. I finished the game in the stands with some of our league partners, and we all felt a bit dissociated, like we were at a badass pro sports event but not