AFC Toronto lands Canadian forward Mya Jones on season-long loan from NWSL's San Diego Wave

Despite the frigid temperatures and multiple snow storms this past week in Toronto, former Canadian youth international Mya Jones is happy with her decision to pursue her budding professional soccer career on home soil. 

The 23-year-old Calgary native, fresh off a successful rookie campaign with the NWSL's San Diego Wave, has signed with AFC Toronto of the Northern Super League on a season-long loan. 

"Coming back to my home country and being able to play in front of Canadian fans and help this founding team was a really big deal to me," Jones told CBC Sports on a recent call from Toronto, where she arrived on Valentine's Day in between snow storms.

Jones made the jump to the top tier of professional women's soccer in the United States after impressing with the University of Memphis and Canada's youth national teams at the under-15, U-17 and U-20 level. 

Taken 42nd overall by the Wave in the 2024 NWSL Draft, Jones made 12 starts and 19 appearances last year, registering two goals for the club. 

With Memphis, she scored 26 goals and assisted on 27 more in 93 matches. During her time with the Tigers, the program won three straight AAC titles and went to five NCAA tournaments. Individually, she was named the AAC Championship Most Outstanding Offensive Player and the AAC Offensive Player of the Year.  

"Mya is another quality addition to our group and we are thrilled to be welcoming another Canadian talent back home," said Billy Wilson, AFC Toronto's Sporting Director. "She is a player who is comfortable operating in several positions in the forward areas and has the ability to both create and score goals."

'Driven to get on the ball'

Jones describes herself as a relentless hard worker. 

"I'm very driven to get on the ball. I'm a creative player," she said. "I enjoy taking people on and trying new things. I'm an attacking threat and I'm a confident player. I think I'm going to bring it for this team this season for sure." 

From her time in the NWSL, she brings lessons learned from the Wave where she was surrounded by players like American stalwart defender Naomi Girma (who recently signed a record transfer fee to Chelsea), now-retired American star striker Alex Morgan and Canadian national team starting goalkeeper Kailen Sheriden. 

"I learned how to be a professional," Jones said. "How to behave and the habits that you need to be a professional at the highest level."

National team ambitions

Getting to the highest level is what continues to drive her. She has ambitions of making the Canadian national team, like her AFC Toronto teammate Emma Regan, who Jones played on youth national teams with. It impacted her decision to come to the NSL and AFC Toronto. 

"At my age, it's a crucial point in my career to continue to develop and the plans [coach Marko Milanovic and Wilson] laid out for me and how they saw me as a player, it felt like they knew me and studied me so strategically and deeply. It showed how much they cared about my growth as a player.

"Marko said to me multiple times, it's important for you to develop even at this point in your career. That really stuck with me."

There's been plenty of speculation among the women's soccer community that Jones might end up with an NSL club, but it was a question of which one. Plenty of her Memphis Tigers teammates have found homes around the league like Grace Stordy (Calgary Wild), Saorla Miller (Halifax Tides) and Tanya Boychuk (Montreal Roses), to name a few. 

"They're all my really good friends," Jones said. "I talk to Saorla and Grace all the time. It's interesting to be hearing about how their pre-season is going and trying to get the inside scoop from them. And Tanya, too — that's going to be a rivalry for sure."

Perhaps the only surprise is the team she chose to sign with, not her hometown Calgary, where she grew up playing for Foothills WFC or Vancouver, where she spent time at Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX Program.

"It was definitely hard to tell my family that I wasn't going to go to Calgary but my parents and family were so supportive about this decision," she said. "It's obviously hard being that far away, but they are so ready to come visit and to come watch me play."

The NSL, Canada's first women's professional soccer league, comprising of AFC Toronto, Halifax Tides FC, Ottawa Rapid FC, Montreal Roses FC, Calgary Wild FC and Vancouver Wild FC, begins its inaugural season in April. 

The league's schedule will be unveiled on Feb. 20.

WATCH l Ranking every NSL team name, logo:

Ranking every NSL team name, logo

4 months ago

Duration 18:28

CBC Sports' Brittany MacLean and Shireen Ahmed rank their favourite logos from the Northern Super League.