AFC Toronto, Arianna, and the Growing Pathway for Girls in Soccer

By Nii Wallace-Bruce

She glides through a crowd of white shirts, the long-haired central midfielder dictating the rhythm of the game.
Out of possession, she closes down her direct opponent, tackling with timing and tenacity.

For Arianna, the potential prize is already enormous.

She wants to play professional soccer. She wants to represent Canada. She has imagined herself playing for Barcelona, Manchester United or Liverpool.
She talks about universities such as Michigan and Pittsburgh. She wants to win the Ballon d’Or. And, perhaps most importantly, she wants to inspire the girls coming behind her.

That ambition belongs to a young player. But it also belongs to a generation of girls growing up at a very different moment in Canadian soccer.

On Sunday, at BMO Field, AFC Toronto staged its She Leads the Game match, a day designed to spotlight leadership and opportunity for women and girls.
Montréal Roses spoiled the occasion on the scoreboard, defeating Toronto 2-0, but the significance of the afternoon stretched beyond the result.

Visibility Transforms What is Possible

For Arianna's mother, Amiyra, that significance is best understood through the eyes of her daughter.
“I don’t think people realise how much it means until they see it through a young girl’s eyes,” she said.

For a generation of Canadian girls, professional women's soccer was something to watch from a distance. The stars were elsewhere. The clubs were elsewhere.
The pathway was often elsewhere. Now, there is a professional club in Toronto.

Girls can walk into BMO Field, see women playing at the highest level and, rather than treating professional soccer as an abstract possibility, attach a face and a place to the dream. “They can actually go to games, watch players up close, and think, ‘That could be me one day.’”

That sentence perhaps captures the significance of AFC Toronto better than any attendance figure or league statistic.

Arianna knows what it is like to see her father play. Her mother believes that experience helped ignite her love for the sport and her desire to follow in his footsteps.
However, watching her father play and watching women play professionally offered two different lessons. Her father showed her a game she could love.

“It's one thing to love soccer because your dad plays,” her mother said, “but it’s another thing entirely to see women doing exactly what you dream of doing.”

The Cost Of the Dream

Arianna dreams of the Ballon d'Or. Amiyra is calculating hotel bills.

The biggest obstacle Arianna's mother identified is not talent. It is cost. “High-level soccer is expensive,” Amiyra said. “Between club fees, travel, hotels, tournaments, extra training... it adds up fast.”

Families make sacrifices to keep talented children in the game. Early mornings. Long drives. Hotels. Tournaments. Missed weekends.
Training sessions squeezed into already crowded family schedules. Eventually, the individual dream becomes a family project.

“As parents, we make sacrifices because we believe in her dream,” Arianna's mother said. “But I know there are so many talented girls who don’t get the same opportunity because of finances.”

The New Layer of Development

It is also why the development of AFC Toronto has to be measured in more than wins and losses. And now the club is beginning to help the next generation.

The club launched its professional academy this month, designed for players aged 14 to 18 and replacing the Ontario National Development Centre program in Toronto.
In addition to providing development opportunities for young players, the academy will also provide a competitive environment for first-team players returning from injury.
The academy is intended to remove one of the most obvious barriers to elite development: money. That is where the academy becomes more than another club initiative.

A tangible pathway does not solve every problem in Canadian soccer.
But it begins to address one of the most fundamental ones: whether a talented player can continue climbing simply because she is talented, rather than because her family can afford the climb. There is another barrier that is harder to see.

Confidence.

Keep Showing Up

Arianna has already experienced the moments familiar to young athletes: doubt, frustration, difficult games and the nagging feeling that perhaps she is not good enough.

Amiyra has learned that development does not end with technical ability. “The mental side of the game doesn’t get talked about enough,” she said.
“Learning how to bounce back is just as important as learning how to play.”

Sunday was a rollercoaster of emotions for the AFC Toronto.
For most of the match, the home side was in control when it came to territory, chances created and possession.
However, the Roses withstood the pressure and moved efficiently in transition.
Montreal goalkeeper, and Ontario NDC (previously Ontario REX) alumna, Anna Karpenko was immense with her saves, frustrating the home side.
The visitors, in turn, won a contentious penalty which swung momentum in their favour.

Against the backdrop of the looming Canadian National Exhibition, this particular ride came to an abrupt halt for AFC Toronto.
The technical area was a picture of disappointment. Despite this, AFC Toronto players took the time to take photos and sign autographs for their fans.

It is a lesson being taught at the professional level and, in a different language, from the sidelines of youth soccer.

After a tough game, Arianna's mother does not offer a tactical lecture. She gives her daughter a hug and a kiss on the head.
If she gave everything she had, she tells her, she has done what she can.
Then comes the rest: sit with the frustration, focus on what can be controlled, learn from it and show up again. Keep showing up.

For a young player dreaming of Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool, Canada and the Ballon d'Or, that may be the most important lesson of all.
The professional game can provide the destination. It cannot provide the resilience required to reach it.
And Canadian soccer is increasingly providing more of the road.

Professional Pathways at Home

Toronto entered Sunday still firmly in the fight for the Northern Super League title, despite the defeat to Montréal.
The club has spent the summer reinforcing its squad with Canadian international experience, bringing home players such as Olympic gold medallist Shelina Zadorsky and fellow international Sabrina D’Angelo, while Canadian Under-20 internationals Kaylee Hunter and Olivia Chisolm (an Ontario NDC alum) will soon depart for the World Cup in Poland in September.

The message is becoming clearer: Canadian players stay home, play at a high level and contribute to a professional club without the domestic game being an afterthought.

A Bigger Horizon

The Northern Super League itself is entering that next phase with greater financial backing.
A professional women's league that did not exist two years ago is now attracting international investment.
A Toronto club that did not exist until recently is now competing for championships.
Canadian internationals who once had to leave the country to play at the highest level are coming home.

And a 14-year-old girl can now enter a fully funded professional academy in her own city and see a pathway that is considerably more tangible than the one available to girls before her. That does not mean the work is finished. Far from it. Arianna's mother knows that.
She has watched the women's game grow rapidly, but she also knows how much remains to be done.

Amiyra’s hope is simple: that when Arianna reaches the next stage of her journey, there will be even more pathways for her younger sister and for the girls who follow them — pathways that allow them to chase their ambitions without believing they must leave Canada to do so. That is the real promise of what is being built.

Not that every girl will become a professional footballer. Not that every dream will come true.

However, some of those dreams will thrive.

What Comes Next

Toronto's pursuit of another league title remains alive.

Young girls like Arianna were looking at a professional football pitch and seeing something beyond the result.

She was seeing herself.

And that may be the most important victory the women's game can offer.

Sources:

Photo Credits:

Arianna with sister and Olivia Smith, Amirya Paquette, 2 July 2026 - Photo courtesy of Amiyra Paquette
AFC Toronto National Anthem, Marc Eyme,16 August 2026 - Photo courtesy of assignment by PSP Media
Karpenko Saves Hunter’s shot, Marc Eyme, 16 August 2026 - Photo courtesy of assignment by PSP Media

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