How Diana Matheson Built a Pro League for Women’s Soccer Stars

Back when Diana Matheson was a star midfielder for Canada’s national women’s soccer team, plays were analyzed using magnets on tactical boards. 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. It would 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 hotshot 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 everyone—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 our badass pro sports event.

Was it as good a feeling or better than your bronze-winning goal at London 2012?

London was surreal, joyful—all of that. This felt magnitudes bigger.

Of the 32 countries that competed in the last Women’s World Cup, only two didn’t have their own domestic pro leagues: Haiti and Canada. When did you think, If our league is ever going to get off the ground, I’m gonna have to do it?

The talk in Canada was always, “We’re going to start in two years, we’re going to start in two years.” We’d been having those conversations since 2007, so it didn’t seem like it was going to happen. This journey started for me when I was about 37. I’d always been interested in the business side of soccer, so my first step after retirement was to go get a few letters at the end of my name so I could be taken more seriously. The COC has a program called Game Plan that gave me a $100,000 scholarship to the MBA program at Queen’s Smith School of Business. I also got a scholarship to do a two-year transition program for players—an overview of the business of football. For 18 months, I was just a full-time student. 

At what point did your “thesis” become the Northern Super League?

I did two major projects in those programs, and both related to the feasibility of women’s pro soccer. I learned that a lot of the women’s leagues around the world exist because of investment from the men’s side—either a federation builds a league or a men’s league chooses (or is mandated) to have one. Building ours independently meant we’d get to make decisions for ourselves, but there was no way I was going to take on something that big alone. I’m a team athlete at heart. I met Thomas Gilbert, my business partner, through our MBA program. We just thought, We’ve got to do it. There would’ve been too much regret if we missed the boat. 

When you finally did go public with the branding, you landed on “Northern Super League.” It’s a hell of a name, but it’s a bit funny that Canada’s first women’s pro team makes no mention of Canada or women. Was that on purpose?

It was. The NSL is in two buckets: one is North American pro sport, where leagues just say what they are on the tin (like the National Hockey League or Major League Baseball). Whereas in soccer leagues around the world, names are some iteration of “best league,” “premier league”—

Or, if you’re Spain’s LaLiga, just “the league.”

Yeah. The second bucket is women’s sport, which is evolving from a time where you always had to say “women’s” as a qualifier. By default, it was men’s. It also felt more inclusive not to gender the name either way. We don’t even say soccer, because then you get into “Is it soccer or football?” 

Oh, god. Don’t start on that.

This name still feels Canadian and it still feels elite. 

And super.

Which is super!

As a player, you probably thought about all the things you’d change if you ran the show. Were there any fixes that were harder than expected once you finally had some sway?

I was definitely one of the players that was like, “Oh, why can’t our schedule ever come out sooner?” Now I know it’s because Canada doesn’t have enough soccer venues. Denmark, Sweden and Australia—comparable countries to us—all have one mid-sized soccer stadium, which fits 8,000 to 18,000 fans, for every half-million people. In Canada, we have one for every eight million people. When the NSL goes to make a schedule, we’re the second or third league in line to choose dates. It was a challenge for us even to have our teams play each other an equal number of times. That’s how low the bar is.

To echo a point you once made: they sell pucks on Parliament Hill, not soccer balls. How hard do you think it’ll be for you to turn more Canadians on to soccer—or is the appetite already there?

In the grand scheme of things, Canada’s pretty new to the sport. In other countries, it’s been the most popular one for, like, 100 years. Here, soccer used to be a punchline: “Real men play American football!” The feeling now is that it’s only going to get bigger. The number-one team sport by participation isn’t hockey; it’s soccer, and it’s been that way for a few years. It’s also the most popular sport among new Canadians. We’ve got FIFA 2026 coming, too, which is only going to add jet fuel to it all. 

Are you expecting a bump from the simultaneous growth of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and, pretty soon, Tempo basketball in Toronto?

Absolutely. A rising tide raises all boats. The “P-dub” being in market before us was a huge help, because we had more data we could bring to the table. That’s been one of the real challenges in women’s sport. The bias has been to say, “It doesn’t make money” and “No one watches it.” There were no numbers to disprove that until Canadian Women and Sport started their reporting and the PWHL launched. Then, Canadians (and any disbelievers) could see the excitement on their TVs, like, Oh, this is what you mean.

Vanessa Gilles, a Canadian who played for Angel City in L.A., said she won’t return to the States because of geopolitical tensions. Maybe this is cynical, but does any part of you see America’s chaos as a recruitment opportunity? 

Canada already has a strong case for recruiting players—stable contracts, a high standard of living. The most optimistic part of all this is the surge of Canadian pride. It’s at the highest levels we’ve seen in our lives. We’re having conversations about how to nation-build in this country that we haven’t had before. Hopefully, those help build what we’re doing. We’ve got teams in six Canadian cities. Those are your domestic vacations right there, Canada! 

About two weeks before the league kicked off, you posted a picture of yourself as a kid sporting your jersey—and an absolutely amazing mullet, by the way. 

It was solid, yep. Solid.

Were you ever a “Timbit?” Tim Hortons sponsored a truly unbelievable number of kids’ sports leagues in the ’90s. 

I don’t know if we would have been branded “Timbits” at that time. My first team was Oakville Hydro or something. 

When did you realize that you were good—and that you loved soccer enough to make it your whole life?

My first view of women’s soccer was at the ’99 World Cup, when Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey. I didn’t have aspirations to play pro; I wasn’t even aware that was an option. And I was pretty good, but I didn’t think I was anything exceptional. I didn’t make the provincial team the first time I tried out, and I only made the national team when I was in my last year of high school. That’s when I started dreaming of World Cups and Olympics. I went where the game took me, but I didn’t imagine all of this as a little kid. 

Tanya Boychuk, a forward for the Montreal Roses, has said that, when she played in Sweden, she lived in a town of 2,000 people and became kind of a local celebrity. People brought muffins to her door. Did you have a similar experience when you played pro for Team Strømmen in Norway?

Yes and no. The fans knew who the internationals were—a couple Canadians and a couple Americans. That following wasn’t big, though. The crowds at the time were a couple hundred people. (Not large, no muffins.) There are multiple women’s divisions in European football, and while the pro side wasn’t driving millions of dollars, it had strong club loyalty. It was do or die. We were fighting for silverware every year, and it meant a lot to everyone. That was my first taste of being a pro, because obviously you didn’t get to see that at all in women’s sport in Canada back then. 

Was it also your first taste of living overseas?

Yeah, and it was great. When you travel with the national team, you barely get to see anything, but when you’re somewhere for 10 months a year—like I was in Oslo—you get days off and a summer break. The west coast of Norway is unbelievable. It’s like a fairy tale where the fjords are.

Christine Sinclair is a co-owner of the Vancouver Rise. Another Super player said she came out of retirement to play in this league—and for you. The consensus seems to be: you don’t say no to Diana. Do you have insane negotiation skills or what? 

I don’t think it’s about me. We came out of a national team program, especially from 2012 onward, where the goal was to leave the game better than we found it. That was actually our rallying cry back in London. 

Do you think some of their involvement has to do with the feeling of “once a team, always a team?” Like you’re invisibly joined at the hip for life? 

I think it’s about what it means for these women to play here, some after 18 years away. Financially, too—the opportunity to build their brand and a life in Canada is new. I was actually joking that this league is all a secret plan to hang out with my friends. So far, so good.

How much soccer are you playing now? You retired in 2021, but the sport is in your sinew at this point. 

I pretty much… don’t play, and I don’t miss it too much. I’ve had seven surgeries. The body’s a bit worse for wear. So I’m good. My workouts these days are yoga, maybe a bit of a jog and lots more walking. I’d love to join a women’s hockey team in Toronto, though. I’ve been saying that for years.

Are there any sports you just can’t hack? 

Basketball. I’m five feet tall, so maybe that wasn’t a good fit for me. I’m usually up to try something new. This past winter, my wife, Anastasia, and I were trying to get outside more, so we went to the public rinks in Toronto. She took up figure skating and tried to teach me some speed skating, which she used to do professionally. 

I can only imagine what game night is like at your house.

Anastasia’s not into board games per se, but with lawn games and those sorts of things, we’re pretty easygoing. That’s one of the things that brought us together: we don’t get competitive over smaller things. 

Have any habits from your past life as a pro athlete bled into your business life? 

Just yesterday, we were with Steph Labbé and her wife, Georgia Simmerling—both former Olympians. The four of us chatted about foods we can’t go anywhere near because we ate them too much as athletes. Georgia’s was granola bars. The only thing I really didn’t like was getting up to travel to games. I’m not a morning person, so now, on early flights, my brain goes back there.

I gather you’re not going to hit every single game, but think of the Aeroplan points! How many do you plan to see in person?

I’ve been to all the home openers, and I’ll try to make it back to each market at least one or two more times. I haven’t seen a game at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby yet, so I definitely want to get out there. 

Obviously you can’t pick a favourite team, but you live in Toronto. Is it just—

No. I’ll probably be at the most Toronto games this year because of the travel budget, but the teams are like children: you can’t pick one. I love them all. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.