By Eunice Soriano
“Intensity, passion and detail,” is what former Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s soccer assistant coach Marko Milanović said he’s leading into a new era of women’s soccer.
AFC Toronto announced Milanović as their head coach on Aug. 7, 2024—the start of his journey in the Northern Super League (NSL).
The NSL will be the first professional women’s soccer league in Canada, consisting of six teams—AFC Toronto, Calgary Wild FC, Halifax Tides FC, Montreal Roses FC, Ottawa Rapid FC and Vancouver Rise FC.
To kick off their inaugural seasons, AFC Toronto and Montreal Roses FC will square off on April 19 at BMO Field.
For the remainder of the season, York Lions Stadium will be AFC Toronto’s home field. As a TMU alumnus familiar with subway series rivalries, Milanović joked that playing on York University’s turf isn’t perfect.
“[The location] is not ideal because it’s York…[but] it’s an environment where players will really grow,” said Milanović.
“You’ve got someone who’s absolutely obsessed with improving as an individual”
Milanović played on the TMU Bold—formerly the Ryerson Rams—soccer team from 2003 to 2007. He was even team captain at one point—his first glimpse into the leadership role that he would take on today.
Milanović returned to the Bold in 2022, this time as an assistant coach for the men’s soccer team, which he said sparked a lot of nostalgia.
“It was such a good experience there as a player, as a student, so going back brought back a lot of those good memories that I had,” said Milanović.
For the past three years, Milanović has taken on double duty. During the academic year, he coached the TMU Bold alongside head coach Filip Prostran but during the summer Milanović was the head coach of the North Toronto Nitros men’s soccer club in League1 Ontario.
It’s with the Nitros where he forged a bond with Billy Wilson, who was announced as the sporting director of AFC Toronto on Aug. 1, 2024.
Throughout their time leading the Nitros—a program that has produced players such as Olivia Smith, who just scored a brace in England’s top division under Liverpool FC—the pair’s mutual respect only grew stronger.
“When you look at any relationship between a sporting director and the head coach, the best ones, the best relationships, the successful ones, are based on trust…We trust [Milanović],” said Wilson.
So when the time came for Wilson to select AFC Toronto’s head coach, choosing Milanović was “an easy decision.”
“There was no doubt that I was going to take the role”
Wilson said Milanović’s instincts as a leader combined with his passion for the sport have the potential to drive their team to success.
“[Good leaders] earn respect through how they treat others…and I think that’s what really separates [Milanović],” he said. “Lots of people claim to be students of the game, but I think with [Milanović], you’ve got someone who’s absolutely obsessed with improving as an individual, and I think you need that in order to be great at anything.”
Wilson’s offer initially took Milanović by surprise as he hadn’t been active in the women’s side of the sport for the past few years.
But as the prospect of paving the way in women’s sports rolled over in Milanović’s mind, “there was no doubt that I was going to take the role,” he said.
Once he settled in, Milanović was ready to hit the ground running.
On Sept. 1, 2024, Milanović joined Wilson in the recruitment process—scouting what they viewed as an elite group of talent that would make up AFC Toronto’s first official roster.
In the pursuit of their new team, Milanović and Wilson spent countless hours watching videos and drawing up player profiles that they had envisioned for each position.
Their search inspired them to look across Canada and other parts of the world too. They travelled to international tournaments from the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia to National College Athletics Association games in the United States.
While finding athletic and tactically skilled players was the end goal for Milanović and Wilson, they put a larger emphasis on those who embodied good character.
“We were hoping that we were getting quality people and with good character…that was one of the most important things to us.” said Milanović. “It’s easy to see what a player is on the field but it’s very difficult to judge their character and to know who really they are off the field.”
However, for some of the international players, Milanović described the move from their home countries to Canada as a hard transition.
“We have a Japanese player, we have a South Korean…the transition for them has been incredibly difficult. You can imagine how hard it is: just moved to a different country and a new team, new everything,” he said.
“I hope that our players can be the right role models for these girls that are coming up”
AFC Toronto’s training session began on Feb. 3, and with that, players like Aoi Kizaki from Japan, Esther Okoronkwo from Nigeria, Emma Regan from Canada’s national team and even former Bold star Ivymae Perez—who recently joined the Philippines’ national team in February—will take on a new challenge: building a soccer family from the ground up.
The language barrier between the AFC Toronto staff and some international players has encouraged head coach Milanović to use visual aids such as videos to demonstrate various drills.
Despite hurdles like these, Milanović hopes that with AFC Toronto’s resources and facilities, the team can grow together one step at a time.
“Now it’s just the challenge of putting it all together…We have the environment to do it, so it’s just a matter of time. It might not look great right at the beginning, but as time goes on, we’ll be better and better,” Milanović said.
As the team continues to gear up for their upcoming game—now just a month away—Milanović is reminded of the lasting impact this group of players will have on the future generations of young girls with dreams of playing soccer professionally in Toronto.
“When [Toronto FC] came around in 2005 and how excited young boys were in the city…that’s the same feeling that little girls in the city can have as well. So I’m really excited about that,” said Milanović. “I hope that our players can be the right role models for these girls that are coming up, because that’s important, not just for soccer, but for life in general.”
Even with all the excitement and hype boosting the new league, Milanović tries to remind his players that humility is at the team’s core.
“[The team] should be very grateful for the environment that we’re in and that we do something that we absolutely love daily,” he said.
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