For AFC Toronto sporting director Billy Wilson and coach Marko Milanovic, the team’s first training camp on February 3 cannot come soon enough.
After all the calls, meetings, movies, and analytics services, they want to get back into the field. They want to see for themselves what the first team in franchise history will look like.
As Canada’s first women’s professional soccer league prepares for its April 16 kickoff, the Northern Super League’s six franchises have revealed a steady stream of player signings over the past five months.
But how exactly do you build a team from scratch when there is no template for how to build a team?
In the case of AFC Toronto, it started with two things: creating the club’s identity and recruiting technical staff.
“There are no rules on how to put together a team,” Wilson recently told CBC Sports. “But I wanted a certain style of play, and I knew I had to have the technical staff in place to do that.”
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The club, who wanted an entertaining and attacking brand of football, chose Milanovic, a familiar face, as their head coach.
The two met through their relationship with the North Toronto Soccer Club, where AFC Toronto’s roots were founded.
“What really helped was that we started together very early. I know some of the other clubs didn’t have this luxury. Every club has a different template,” Milanovic said.
“We had a really good idea of how much we wanted to play and what the formation would be. Although it would be flexible, it would be more of an attacking and defensive style. Then we came up with a number of player profiles that could fit into that. Make that style cool and build from there.
“When it comes to players, we are on the same page. We joke about the players who are not doing well. That was probably Billy’s choice. The player who really stood out was me,” laughed Milanovic.
No stone is left unturned
No stone was left unturned in the process. They looked at lists of players from Ontario and League One. They have traveled everywhere from Colombia for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup to the NCAA Finals in Cary, North Carolina. They built connections with federations, coaches and player agents.
They watched hundreds of hours of video and scoured football analytics site Wyscout.
“They work hard, they make an amazing group, and I know they really care about people,” said Helena Ruken, the team’s CEO and co-founder.
“They are building a new team and most of the players don’t know each other, but they are working very hard to put together a cohesive group that gets along well on the pitch as well as off it.”
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The club’s initial signing was rising Canadian national team midfielder Emma Regan, who had returned to Canada after playing overseas in Denmark.
“(AFC Toronto) came to the table and I was really encouraged by everything I heard from Marko and Billy,” Regan said.
Just as important as finding quality players was ensuring that promising players aligned with and believed in the club’s values.
“We really want to create an environment where women can achieve greatness and greatness on their own terms. That’s kind of a tagline for us,” Wilson said, reflected in the team’s branding, “Run It Our Way.” I said it was a concept.
“What this means from an on-field perspective is that we’re looking for players who want to embrace the culture, where we start with all the signings before we even talk about the actual sporting side of things. ‘Do you want to be a part of this?’
The ‘this’ Wilson refers to includes three things: community, persistence, and legacy. This is the basis for every decision they make.
Developing a sense of community
Community was at the forefront of the team’s three recent signings: midfielder Ivymae Perez, defender Sarah Rollins and goalkeeper Sierra Cota-Yarde, all former members of the North Toronto Soccer Club.
Rollins, a 19-year-old Toronto native, returns home after two successful seasons with the UBC Thunderbirds. There, she won back-to-back national championships and was named the 2023 U Sports Rookie of the Year.
She grew up in the OPDL, the highest level of youth soccer in Ontario, with North Toronto and later played for the League1 team. Wilson has been her coach for four years.
“He’s always been someone who saw my potential and helped me get to the next level. He’s had a huge impact on my career. They’re both really great people that I look up to,” Rollins said. Drops out of college early to become a professional.
“I’m excited to grow as a player. I’m playing with amazing players who are older, wiser and have more skills. I’m excited to learn from them.”
Luken and some of the team’s players called Wilson and Milanovic a “dynamic duo,” which both laughed off.
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The team also announced Wednesday that it has signed teenage winger/forward April Lantaigne, who is leaving the University of South Alabama after a successful freshman year.
When asked if he was persuasive about recruiting, Wilson said his main goal was to provide promising players with one thing: honesty.
Milanovic is on the same page from a coaching perspective.
“I want our players to take some risks and have a real sense of ownership because that’s important to their development. I’m really passionate about that part of the game. I really want the players that leave our program to be better players. I hope it’s a winning game.”
Training camp coming soon
The next step for the team is training camp and getting players settled in the city.
They will be training inside a bubble on the campus of York University, where they will play in their inaugural season.
Each squad can have a maximum of 25 players, but Wilson and Milanovic are opting to have 22 or 23 players just to keep the group close in terms of organization, giving players time and leaving space for the transfer window. I believe it will.
What are AFC Toronto’s initial goals?
“It’s about truly connecting with our community. To me, that’s more important than winning, but you don’t get it without the other things,” Wilson said.
“You can’t get that if you don’t have a competitive team on the field.”
The NSL, Canada’s first women’s professional soccer league comprised of AFC Toronto, Halifax Tights FC, Ottawa Rapids FC, Montreal Rose FC, Calgary Wild FC and Vancouver Wild FC, begins its inaugural season in April.
