'It's absolutely time': Canadian soccer star pushing to bring women's pro league here

TORONTO -

In the wake of Team Canada’s gold-medal win in women’s soccer at the Tokyo Olympics, one retired player and two-time bronze medallist is making it her personal mission to establish a professional league for women at home.

Veteran midfielder Diana Matheson retired from soccer in July after a celebrated career that saw her earn bronze medals for Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2012 London Olympics. In fact, only captain Christine Sinclair has logged more matches, starts, and minutes for Canada than Matheson.

That dedication to the game is also apparent in the Oakville, Ont. native’s determination to bring a women’s professional league to Canada.

“It’s absolutely time to start this thing going. There's no turning back after this,” she told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday.

Matheson said she hopes they can take advantage of the current attention on women’s soccer following Canada’s win at the Olympics.

And she’s not alone in that hope, either.

Her former teammate Sinclair has also publicly spoken about the need for a women’s professional league in Canada in the days after her big win in Tokyo.

“I think we're the only country ranked in like the top 10 to not have some sort of professional environment for their players to play in,” she told CTV News Vancouver on Tuesday. “It's time for that to change and we're hoping that this platform will be will give us the opportunity to kind of start that change.”

To do this, Matheson said a professional league is much needed to bridge the gap between Canada’s thriving youth programs and the Canadian national team.

“It’s kind of just a missing link in the system that we don't have right now,” she explained. “We have one of the strongest youth systems in the world. We're second in the world for girls and women participation, but then when we finish the youth system, as a player, you pretty much have to retire or leave the country. Those are kind of your options.”

Matheson, herself, played professional soccer in Norway and the United States. Sinclair currently captains the Portland Thorns FC in the (U.S.) National Women’s Soccer League.

Because of this missing link, Matheson said Canada is losing many valuable players to other countries and teams.

“We can build that middle step in the middle for all these players,” she said. “We're going to capture way more players playing longer, it's going to affect our coaching systems, it's going to affect our referee systems, it’s going to get more women and more people into the sport business. It's going to change the landscape.”

Matheson said she’s spoken with many players, coaches, women in business, and provincial leaders who want to see the development of a professional soccer league for women.

“There are tons of people out there that want to make this happen. They want to grow the game,” she said.

In terms of first steps, Matheson said they need to start researching and seeking input from stakeholders during an “audit phase” for five months to determine the logistics of establishing a professional league. Then, she said they can begin building the league in 2022.

“We can start to put a plan together, we can start to look for the right clubs and the right cities, and I think we can kick off in 2023,” she said.

“In five to 10 years, we could have one of the top five leagues in the world, I think.”

With files from The Canadian Press