Christine Sinclair, Diana Matheson reveal pro Canadian women's soccer league set for kickoff in 2025

Professional women's soccer is coming to Canada.

Christine Sinclair and former national teammate Diana Matheson announced on Monday plans to kick off a domestic professional women's league in 2025, featuring eight teams throughout Canada.

The two players sat down with The National's Adrienne Arsenault to reveal the news.

After the duo helped Canada capture bronze at the 2012 Olympics — Matheson scored the medal-clinching goal — Sinclair expected progress. After all, the team had just snapped Canada's 108-year podium drought in the sport.

"I really thought that 2012 was going to be a turning point for this country in bringing professional soccer home," Sinclair told Arsenault. "But it never happened. And there's still no pathways within this country."

And so, a decade later, Sinclair and Matheson took matters into their own hands.

The still unnamed league would begin in April 2025 with an inaugural champion crowned sometime in the fall. Each team will have at least one Canadian international, and the goal is to bring home about half of the over-100 Canadians currently playing abroad.

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Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Calgary Foothills Soccer Club are confirmed as the first two teams to join the upstart league.

"Whitecaps FC are thrilled to be one of the first teams to sign on to a professional women's soccer league in Canada," said Stephanie Labbe, Whitecaps FC general manager of women's soccer. "The creation of this league is something we have been advocating for over many years, and to be part of seeing it come to fruition is truly exciting."

The league is being built by Matheson and her business partners at Project 8 Sports Inc. Sinclair,