Just over two years ago, Diana Matheson announced formal plans to create a professional women's soccer league in Canada. Matheson, who racked up 206 caps for the Canadian national team in her career of nearly two decades, was the first to pursue what is usually a given in countries with successful national teams: a domestic incubator for top talent. But the Canadian national team, which won Olympic gold in 2021, has almost exclusively relied on foreign leagues to develop elite players.
In the months since Matheson's efforts went public the Northern Super League, as it's now known, has released a final list of its six participating cities and committed to an April 2025 kickoff; it also, in October 2024, announced a standard player agreement which looks a lot like the NWSL's hard-fought 2024 collective bargaining agreement. It precludes a player draft, prohibits trades without player consent, and grants automatic free-agency at the end of contracts. It also guarantees a minimum salary of 50,000 CAD—about 36,500 U.S. dollars in 2024. Teams across the NSL have announced some splashy signings: CANXNT standout Quinn, newly un-retired Desiree Scott, and veteran goalkeeper Erin McLeod.
On Jan. 9, the signings of two players in particular, to the Montréal Roses, caught my eye. Mara Bouchard and Stéphanie Hill were students at McGill University, just like me! They graduated in December with a Bachelor of Arts and a master's in physical therapy, respectively. How cool that their rookie year will be in the brand-new league, and that they’re able to represent their hometown team.
The Roses' squad draws heavily from the local region; as of this writing, eight of the 12 announced players hail from la belle province, including Hill and Bouchard. The organization has also committed to recruiting talent from Quebec universities, reflecting a league-wide intention that Matheson commented on in September. "We are fortunate to have a strong working relationship with U Sports and are thrilled to offer the Northern Super League as a pathway for university athletes to further their soccer careers while playing on home soil," she said to CBC Sports. "One of the impacts we want the creation of this league to have is that more Canadian women choose to stay in Canada, and choose Canadian universities for their education." Hill and Bouchard are joined by another local university graduate, Lorie Thibault (Université de Montréal), as well as Félicia Roy, an 18-year-old scooped from Champlain College Saint-Lambert.
A couple weeks after the Roses announced the signings of Hill and Bouchard, I spoke with them about their experiences joining the team, their hopes for the league, and their thoughts on the global women’s soccer landscape. The two have an obvious rapport—no surprise considering they've been teammates for four years—and laughter was abundant in our conversation, which has been edited and condensed lightly for clarity.
I want to go back to before the Northern Super League was even announced. What were you thinking you wanted to do after you graduated?
Stéphanie Hill: Pro soccer was always something that I hoped to be able to embark on. Because there was no league in Canada that was announced, I was looking to go to Europe, so I was like, OK, where? In the back of my head too, I graduated in physiotherapy so it was also a bit of a decision of like, Am I putting my career on hold for now to go to Europe? I won't be able to be treating in Europe so quickly. But now the fact that there's a Canadian League, it was like, If that's possible, let's just do it.
Mara Bouchard: I had the same thoughts as Steph. I graduated my undergrad in psychology, so the difference is that I still have a masters and a doctorate to do. But I think for me, it was just the right moment to take a break from school and go all out. Like Steph mentioned, the only option for us was to look abroad and at the big picture, because there was nothing else here. It was planned for me to go to Europe, but as soon as it was announced that there was a team in Montreal, it was like a no-brainer—
Hill: No-brainer!
Bouchard: —and then just jump right in.
The NSL has been in the works since 2021 but wasn't announced until May of last year, which was also when the Montreal team was announced. How closely had you been following that progress?
Bouchard: Since the announcement of the Montreal team came pretty late in the process, I was never focusing on the Northern Super League. I was doing the steps and process to go to Europe. All of a sudden, it was Oh, there's a Montreal team. That changes everything. I don't think I would have jumped in as quickly as I did if there were no Montreal team. Yes, I could have received offers from other teams in the Northern Super League, but just the fact that it's home—you're playing in front of your family and friends—it changes everything.
Hill: When the NSL was announced, it did bring a lot of hopes. When it was in the talks, it was like, Ooh! A league in Canada? Hello? Part of me was like, Just put the work in, play your season. Focus on the now and cross your fingers for the future. It's important to take the steps and to be proactive, but at the time we had just finished our university league and I was embarking on my semi-pro league [Ligue1 Québec] and I was like, Look, perform as much as you can during that season. Train hard, play hard, hope that somebody notices you. If they do, fantastic. If they don't, then figure your stuff out or try again, and again, and again. I think that Mara and I are both people and players that are quite focused on the task at hand, so I hadn't taken the steps yet to explore Europe. I don't know if that was the right move or not, but it was the right move in the end, so woohoo! I wasn't necessarily laser-focused on This is it. It was just Put in the work, don't assume that anything is going to come at you on a silver platter, and then just hope that somebody knows somebody who knows you, because at the end of the day, it does help knowing people.
Can you talk me through your process of actually joining the Roses?
Bouchard: When I talked to the manager of the Roses, they told me they came to see me during the summer, but I didn't know! I was starting my process of going to Europe without knowing that people were watching me. When the university season started, [scouts from the Roses] were coming to our games, and then we had a few interactions and conversations, and then they announced the coaching staff, so we were meeting them. A few conversations is what it takes to kind of see if it's a right fit for you, because, yes, you want to embark on this team, but if the coaching staff doesn't fit with your values or the way you play, it won't fit as much as if you have a good link or relationship with these people. After a few meetings, it's where you kind of seal the deal.
Hill: Mine is a bit similar. It was in the summer too, and you never know when they're there and when they're not there. I've said it before, but I think that the way that we got recruited really does support what the league has been saying. Our coaches were like, They're going to be recruiting from Ligue1 and from university. And they showed up, and they've been there. It's really cool to see that happen before your eyes. I was grateful enough to be spotted in the summer and during one of the Ligue1 games, I had a conversation with Marinette [Pichon, Roses Sporting Director]. Then, like Mara said, when our university season at McGill started—I mean, we don't know since when they had been watching us at that point, like how much of the preseason or whatever—but super grateful to have had a couple more conversations with them, and met the staff. They're awesome, and it was cool to get along well with them and like them as people and as professionals. And it was just signed, sealed, delivered!
What was it about meeting the coaching staff that made you feel like it was going to be a fit?
Bouchard: When you want to play pro, the focus is really on soccer and soccer and soccer, and the person is there but they don't worry as much about it. For me, the coaching staff and Marinette were really focused on creating this relationship with the person first. Yes, they want you on their team because you're good and because your soccer qualities fit with their values and with the way they want to play, but I think for me, they were really like, Let's focus on the person first, and what she wants to do outside of soccer first and then adding this layer of soccer on top.
Hill: With Robert [Rositoiu, Roses head coach] and Marinette and the supporting staff, what struck me was how much they made me feel like I could be myself. They're funny, they're cracking jokes already, and I was like, This is all so fun. It's cool that, like Mara said, they are interested in the person that you are, just as much as the player that you are, that you can be. It was fun that they just seemed to bring a positivity to it, and a certain lightness. Especially going into our first pro contracts, I think that that was like music to our ears, because this feels more comforting than we had initially thought it would be. They're warm. They're warm people.
You mentioned the contract, so I was wondering what kind of considerations, especially financially, did you have to think about? What kind of calculus went into figuring out if this was a leap that you wanted to take?
Hill: The league has a certain minimum salary for every single player, and that's out there in the open. It's 50,000 bucks. So you know that that's where the contract can commence at, and then all the other things that come in contract—it's a job, right? So it'll come with certain insurances and all that stuff. Just as much as it's a soccer pro contract, I was also looking at it as a job. I was trying to really separate the rational decision from the emotional one. Because the emotional one is like, Woohoo, yay yay yay! versus the rational one which is like, OK, hold up. Let me read this through. Let me make sure that everything that should be in a normal job contract—like for me, a physio or a desk job or whatever—is still applied in this context. The league has a certain standard for contracts all through Canada, so you know what you're signing up for. And there's obviously less fear behind it, too, so you don't feel like, Oh, the rug's gonna be swept right under your feet. Once you knew that, and once you had the sense of security that this is not going anywhere and this is legit, then it was fine. The people that were helping us with our contract and stuff were very present via email or call if we had questions, and so that was nice too. We had support in our decisions.
Bouchard: My first thought was going to Europe, and it was kind of a switch in my situation, where it was like, Oh, this opportunity is now happening here. So I was really comparing what's possible here and what's possible abroad. Talking with coaches that are here having come from Europe and coaches that are already in Europe, I think it's two different worlds. Here, like Steph mentioned, everything's standardized across Canada. In Europe, there's the owner of the club, and then he's pushing money, but each team has different amounts of money. And so you never know where you're going to end up, there’s no security, and salary-wise—
Hill: It varies a lot, a lot, a lot.
Bouchard: Inside one league, there are teams that have so much money and teams that have, like, no money at all.
Hill: Like Mara said, if you go to Europe, sometimes you can end up on a great side, just as much as you can end up on a not-so-fortunate side. And so I think it's interesting in this case because you have girls that are graduating with certain degrees and certain opportunities in the workforce outside of soccer. Let's say you end up going to Europe and not getting so much of a fortunate salary, then you're obligated to have another job to even just sustain your living, right? But here, you can actually consider putting aside the degree that you ended university with and be like, OK, I can live off of this. And it's not a choice full-on between I’m sacrificing this for that.
You guys talking about the range of salaries in Europe compared to the NSL's standardization got me thinking about the tired discourse about how the strength of the NWSL is its parity, as opposed to in Europe where there are some great clubs and the Champions League, but then the domestic leagues are less interesting because there's such a wide range in quality. I'm curious about where you think the NSL will fit into that. What do you think the place of the NSL might be within the global women's soccer landscape?
Hill: I mean, I wish I could tell you. As much as I'm sure that so many people have asked themselves that same question, we actually have nothing. We can't say anything just yet just because of how fresh things are. So far, seems pretty good, right? But we don't know how the teams are going to play together. We don't know how the competition is going to be. We don't know how high the level will be just yet. We know it's going to be a high-level league, but we don't know where it can stand in comparison to others. I think that that's a cool thing about this new thing, but also brings a certain mystery.
Bouchard: What we know from the signings that have been happening in the past month—there's huge names that have come out of it, people from the NWSL coming back to Canada and having faith in this league. So it's just something that I was not expecting for our first year, and especially coming from a league that is as fully developed as the NWSL, coming to a new league that nobody has any idea what it's gonna look like. It just brings out this Oh, it's happening. It's gonna work. So I think it's super cool.
Are you excited to play against those big-name players? How are you feeling about it?
Bouchard: Super excited.
Hill: Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. It's—yeah. Just like, yes.
Bouchard: There's no other answer.
Hill: No.
Bouchard: Just yes.
I'm graduating from McGill in the spring, and every other minute I get asked, Oh, what are you doing after you finish university? And your answer is so much cooler than mine because my answer is, I don't know. But I'm wondering, when you tell McGill students, or whoever, about what you're doing, do they get it? Do they see how cool it is?
Bouchard: As we were coming out of university, we were realizing, This is really happening. Let's go back to reality. We're doing this. We signed pretty early on—our university season was not over—so as Steph mentioned, we were really focused on the present. So we didn't realize it as much during the season as when university was done, and then we were just like, Oh?
Hill: I think when we were announced, too, that was big. Our girls on our team have been the cutest people ever. They've just been so supportive and encouraging, like, Wow, this is so cool! I almost—I don't know about Mara—but I'm kind of like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah but my head hasn't wrapped around it yet. Maybe it never will. But it's really sweet to see how genuine the people from McGill have been, and we've received certain messages of support. And our coaches have helped us throughout the entire thing; they were the ones that were aware of those conversations taking place, and guiding us through it, and then being so excited for us when we were signed and announced. That was really cool. For me, it was funny to see people—it seemed as though it had kicked in more for them than it had for me! And I was like, Wait, oh, we're excited! Yeah, yeah, yeah! And I am excited, but it's just different degrees. When people ask us What are you doing now?, now we can say it, but it's just something we're getting used to saying.
Bouchard: What was really cool to see was that there was this wave of players from different sports just coming in and chatting with you and you're just like, Oh—
Hill: You know?
Bouchard: You know?
Hill: How do you know?
Bouchard: —from other sports at McGill. And you're just like, Wait, what? How do you know? It was super cool to see that they were following, tagging along, sharing, posting, and it was just very fun. A big community.
What does it mean that the two of you get to move on to this next thing together?
Hill and Bouchard: Aww!
Hill: I'm grateful. I'm very grateful. From the soccer standpoint, I think Mara and I have really good chemistry on the field, and that's really cool because we're in positions that mean we play together all the time. So many passes we make are to each other, and how we move on the field is synonymous, right? So it's really nice that we know we can play well together, but beyond that we get along super well as well. Going into this, and already having a buddy that knows who you are, knows your person and what your values are, what you stand for, is just one person less to, I don’t know …
Bouchard: Yeah. We get along super well, but I think also, it's a new league, it's our first pro contract, everything's new. We're reading the contract, and we're like, What?
Hill: [mimes talking on telephone] Steph? Mara?
Bouchard: It was super reassuring doing the same steps at the same time, and having someone to chat, to ask questions, giving each other ideas. You thought of that, I thought of something else, and then just asking a bunch of questions.
Hill: Yes, absolutely. It's like having a buddy in your class. Who wants to be alone in a class, with new content, assignments, all that stuff? You want to have somebody sitting beside you that you can text at ten o'clock at night and be like, Wait, what do we have again tomorrow? That's what it is. It's like my classmate, my teammate, my buddy that I can work with and giggle with and just be like, Hey, what's going on?
Bouchard: What do we have to do?
It's true! I was also wondering how you're feeling about all the travel that the league will entail, since in university you played almost entirely in Quebec. You're playing as far as Vancouver, right? How are you feeling about all that? How are you going to manage that?
Hill: I think it's really cool.
Bouchard: Yeah, I think it's really cool. And I think talking with the coaching staff and everyone on the team, we're not going to be rushed, like going on a flight and then playing a game two hours later. Since we already know there's a lot of traveling, we can arrange our schedule and plan ahead to go to Vancouver and then play the next day or the day after, and it won't affect how we play.
Hill: It's nice, too, that we get to be in the league where you're traveling and you're taking the plane. I don't know, it's always seemed kind of fun—the idea that I'm taking a plane to go play my game. I think that that's cool. Obviously, we're grateful to be able to be in a league that's going to fund the travel as well.
This is your first pro contract, which is so exciting and crazy, but then it's also a new league for everybody. So I would imagine that this might feel sort of doubly daunting in a way? Are there things that you’re nervous about?
Hill: I actually appreciate that it's a new league and it's my first pro contract, because regardless of where girls are from, or where they've played before, or how many years of their pro contracts they've had, everybody in this league is starting kind of at the same baseline. In a sense, it's a bit reassuring because every team is becoming a team now. It's really fun and exciting. It's not as daunting as one might think it is, for us, anyways.
Bouchard: Let's say I get a contract in Europe, you're going into a team that's been there for years, and the team is already there. It's just like you're switching with one player—
Hill: Who might be even a player from there, so you're an international player taking a player from their spot.
Bouchard: Yeah, you're kind of always trying to get to the same level as the team, but you're coming from far. Here, everyone's starting on the same team, so even if my teammate has different experience, well, it's a new league. You're starting at the same level as me, and we're just going from there. So I think, yes, it's really reassuring.
I could imagine that it might also feel like an opportunity to be able to shape the new team and the new league. Does it feel like you'll really be able to have an influence to set that sort of culture and style of play?
Hill: I don't think that we feel like we—Mara and Stéphanie—will necessarily be molding, but I think that our entire team will be, so every single player that will have signed and will be playing on the Montreal Roses. I think we'll feel it more as a whole and as a collective than individually, because I think that it's more powerful to mold as a team than to mold individually.
Bouchard: I think the one thing that we can bring on the table is the fact that we're home. We're playing in front of people that have watched us our whole life, in front of little girls that are part of the same clubs we grew up in. So I think the one thing we can bring to this team, culture-wise, is we're home. We can inspire other people from here to play on home soil.
Have people from the leagues you've grown up in reacted to your signings?
Bouchard: Definitely.
Hill: Clubs that I played for, and girls that I've coached and their parents have sent messages. Old coaches that I've had, we went back and forth. You thank them for certain things that they've helped you improve and reach, and so it's been really fun to get that support from different clubs. And my school that I went to—that's really sweet. It's been really nice.
A big reason that the NSL was created was to serve as a domestic hub that can feed the Canadian national team. Do you have aspirations to play for the senior national team one day?
Hill: Yes.
Bouchard: Yes.
[both laugh]
Hill: I think that would be my short term goal, for sure.
Bouchard: Yeah.
How are you feeling about the news that Casey Stoney is going to be the new national team head coach?
Bouchard: I think it's just a new start for them, after all that's been happening. I think for them it's just like, reborn and restart. For me personally, I'll keep watching, I'll keep following, but I don't know what to expect because everything is new.
Hill: The team is a great team. The players are super talented, and they've shown that consistently throughout the years. Having a new coach who might bring a different vision or a different style of play, I think that's always cool. And like Mara said, we'll always be supporting the team, of course, but it doesn't change anything about how much I'll want to be looking at the girls play, and want to see what they're doing.
I saw that you went to the Montreal Victoire game in Quebec City, right? Was that fun?
Bouchard: It was very fun!
Hill: It was fun to be able to watch La Victoire play; we do follow them as well. It's beautiful to see how many people are in that crowd and in that arena. And you see on the Jumbotron, they zoom in on posters that people make and it's like, people do watch women's sports. You've got little girls in the stands that are just dancing and they want to win that little prize that they give, you know? La Victoire are playing in different arenas throughout the country, and so far they've been sold out. So it's quite powerful and really beautiful to see, and I think that the Montreal Roses would definitely love that support as well from the fans, because it just adds that much more power and joy and pride.
Bouchard: You want to create this support between all women's teams. I think we all want to reach the same goal, we want to be watched just like men's teams are being watched. We want the same things. So I think the support of one another in our development is super cool to see. And them inviting us is like, Wow, we can actually support them, and they're supporting us. And so I think it's just super cool that we're all supporting each other, to grow this kind of network of women in sports.
Hill: Maybe next time we can maybe give a shout out and say, The Roses would love to meet the Victoire players!
I feel like that's definitely in your future.
Hill: Thanks. I like that.
