PLAYER PROFILE PREVIEW – Monday was a monumental day for the Northern Super League/Super Ligue du Nord (NSL/SLN) for the first-ever signing of the NSL forward Jade Kovacevic. Kovacevic was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and grew up in Flamborough and Georgetown.
Northern Super League’s First-Ever Player: Jade Kovacevic
Childhood and National Team Experience
As a child, Kovacevic played youth soccer with the Flamborough Flames, Georgetown SC, and Oakville SC. Also, in Bobby Lennox’s article for the North Toronto Nitros Soccer, this is what Lennox wrote on Kovacevic playing internationally for Canada:
“Being selected to play in the Canada national team program and play in World Cup tournaments provided her with incredible opportunities to travel the world and visit countries she may never have had the chance to see otherwise,” Lennox wrote. “Jade’s experiences at this level have shaped her into the person and coach she is today.”
Kovacevic played six games for the Canada U17 team, and scored one goal, while she also played one game for the Canada U20 team.
Also, she was chosen as one of the top youth players for Oakville back in 2009, because of this (Source: Burlington Post):
Leadership qualities is a must for anyone who wants to be a captain of AFC Toronto, and while the other players have not been signed yet, it is possible that Kovacevic will be one of the players that could be the inaugural captain of the club.
College Career
Louisiana State (2012)
In her short time with Louisiana State (the team is known as the LSU Tigers), she was the 2012 TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 100 Freshmen, as she was ranked 57th, as well as the 2012 Second-Team All-SEC, 2012 SEC All-Freshman Team, and the 2012 LSWA Second-Team All-Louisiana.
READ MORE: Louisiana State University
Fanshawe College (2015-16, 2018-19)
With the Fanshawe Falcons at Fanshawe College in Canada, this is where Kovacevic made her name. There, she scored 103 goals in total for her team, which included scoring 17 game-winning goals. One of those game-winning goals came on September 14, 2019, when Kovacevic scored the game-winning goal against Redeemer. Kovacevic also provided the game-winning assist to Nicole Nielsen in the 2018 OCAA Women’s Soccer Championship.
In addition, Kovacevic was named as the CCAA Player of the Year in 2018 and 2019 while with the Fanshawe Falcons (Source: Mike Stubbs of 980 CFPL).
READ MORE: Fanshawe College
Club Career
FC London (2017-2018, 2019-21)
Kovacevic is known as a prolific goal-scorer, and that can clearly be seen with FC London. With the League1 Ontario team, she scored a staggering total of 95 goals for the club. When interviewed by Todd Devlin, she said this in Game Day London article:
“It’s the final pass, or the final action, that sets you up to be successful in front of the goal,” she said. “And when you look at it that way, it’s quite amazing that I play around players that are constantly putting me in those positions to score.”
When this article was written back in 2021, Kovacevic scored 16 of her team’s 21 goals. Despite that, she is very humble and gives credit to the players she is playing with, which is a great trait of a leadership skill for AFC Toronto.
One of her most notable moments with FC London was scoring the game-winning goal to clinch the 2019 League1 Ontario title for FC London.
Roma CF (2019)
This is what Kovacevic said about her experience playing in Italy (Source: Neil Davidson of The Canadian Press):
“The time of my life,” she said with gusto. “I lived in the suburbs of Rome, about a 20-minute subway ride from Vatican City. It was just fantastic, I was there for six or seven months, helped the team grow a little bit, learned a little bit of Italian, fell in love with the lifestyle and the culture.”
With Roma CF, Kovacevic scored eight goals in only 11 appearances.
North Toronto Nitros (2024)
Lastly, the last team Kovacevic played before going to AFC Toronto was the North Toronto Nitros. Kovacevic, as with Roma CF, was only there for a year. In only 16 games, she scored 16 goals and showed herself to be an asset to the club.
She helped lead the Nitros to the League1 Ontario Cup Final, but ended up losing to her former team, FC London. The FC London starting goalkeeper, Cassidy Joslin, said this about Kovacevic (Source: Nelson Mahmoudi of the Northern Tribune):
“I knew that Jade had the ability to make a big difference in the game [and] I was expecting her to consistently be threatening on goal,” said Joslin. “For me, [I had to be] clear and concise when communicating with my back line, organizing on set pieces to ensure we’re matched up and were always ready to face shots on goal.”
What This Means for AFC Toronto and the Northern Super League
READ MORE: The Inaugural AFC Toronto Head Coach: Marko Milanovic
In an interview with CTV Your Morning YouTube Channel, AFC Toronto head coach, Marko Milanovic, said this:
“Most of the roster should be announced in December and January.”
Also, the signing of Kovacevic is a trend of the first of many Canadians to be signed into the Northern Super League/Super Ligue Du Nord, as Diana Matheson, co-founder of the NSL/SLN, stated this (Source: Tom Nightingale of the Canadian Soccer Daily):
“Obviously, having majority Canadian players on the roster is important to us,” Matheson added. “We have so many players that come up through our soccer pyramid, and our whole role was to add the top of the pyramid so that players don’t just fall off the cliff.”
READ MORE: AFC Toronto Logo and Stadium: York Lions Stadium
It is also important to note that later that same day Kovacevic was revealed as the first-ever NSL/SLN player signed. The Montreal Roses/Roses de Montréal FC revealed two players as well. Gabrielle Lambert is the second Canadian player and first-ever goalkeeper to be signed in the NSL/SLN league. There is also the first-ever international player with defensive midfielder, Charlotte Bibault, who hails from France.
It is also nice to see that the Toronto WNBA Team and the Toronto Sceptres, Toronto’s other two professional women’s sports teams, showing support for the city’s local professional women’s soccer team in this golden age of professional women sports in Toronto and generally in Canada.
Photo Credit: AFC Toronto X Account on October 22, 2024.