AFC Toronto, Northern Super League

Nikayla Small: A Standout AFC Toronto Midfielder

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AFC Toronto Midfielder, Nikayla Small Playing At York Lions Stadium

PLAYER PROFILE – Nikayla Small, the 5’2” AFC Toronto midfielder, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on March 24, 2003, and was brought up in Pickering, Ontario.

Nikayla Small: One of the Best NSL Midfielders

Childhood

Nikayla Small’s father, Jamie, was born in Toronto, while her mother was born in Kingstown, which is the largest city as well as the capital of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Small grew up playing basketball, volleyball, athletics, and flag football. She also started playing soccer at Pickering FC. Her favourite teams to support included Manchester United FC, Arsenal FC, Real Madrid CF, Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors. Also, some well-known athletes that she idolizes include Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, DeMar DeRozan, and Kyle Lowry.

Small also played for the Canada youth teams, such as the 2018 Concacaf Girls’ Under-15 Championship, as well as the Canada U-17 and U-20 teams. She was even the captain of the U20 National Team at the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. She also earned a bronze medal at the Concacaf U20 Championship (Source: AFC Toronto Website).

This is what Small said about growing up in Canada (Source: Versus TV 24 YouTube Account):

“The main source of my soccer career comes from my family. Since I was young, everyone in my family was playing soccer, so just natural for me to want to play, too. At the age of four, I got into house league soccer here in Pickering, and essentially from there, I was always one of the kids who actually tried. I wasn’t the kind of one who would pick grass. Like, I was always trying to score.”

In the same interview, Small talked about her drive to be the best in her family and how that influenced her soccer career (Source: Versus TV 24 YouTube Account):

“I did have a lot of cousins, and we were all born around the same age, so we were always competing against each other, playing different sports. And from there, I think just trying to be the best in my family stemmed to trying to be the best on the field.”

Over the years, Small developed into a fantastic player. As one can see from the Versus TV 24 interview, she described the reason for her motivation and what she plans to do in the future.

Collegiate Career: Wake Forest Demon Deacons (2021-24)

As a freshman, they earned All-ACC honours and were chosen for the Canadian National Team Celebration Tour. In that season, she played in 20 games and started in 19 of them. She scored against Youngstown State on August 29 and provided two assists against Loyola-Maryland on October 29, as well as in three other games.

Then, in her junior year in 2023 (she was injured as a sophomore), she became just one of four players to appear in all 18 games. She led the team with seven assists. Small was also ranked 57th in the nation and eighth in the ACC with 0.39 assists per game. This included having the game-winning assist against App State (8/17) and assisting in a game-winning goal against Army (8/20).

2022 was Small’s final year with the club. With the team, she made 22 appearances in 17 starts. She had nine points with three goals and three assists each. She scored the third-fastest goal in program history against NC State on November 23 and had the game-winner against Mississippi State on September 25.
Small also earned a goal and an assist against number six of Florida State on October 3, as she also got an All-ACC Academic selection.

In her last season with Wakefield, she had a highlight-reel goal, as her sliding shot hit the top shelf and into the back of the net.

Her records/accolades include being tied for fifth in season and program history as a freshman with five assists in total, as she earned the 2021 Freshman Second Team All-American honour. Smith also earned the three-time ACC All-Academic Team honour and was the 10th in program history in assists, single season (7).

Source: Wakefield Forests (Wake Forest University)

Professional/Senior Career

Small played for one season with her former youth club, NDC Ontario, where she had one goal in ten games in 2022. She would then play for Eagle FC, where she made eight appearances and scored three goals. However, as a professional, she made her biggest jump so far when she moved to AFC Toronto.

AFC Toronto (2025-Present)

On January 27, 2025, Small officially signed with AFC Toronto (Source: AFC Toronto X Account). A midfielder from Pickering, Ontario, there was excitement from her on joining the team (Source: Neil Davidson of The Canadian Post):

“But growing up, you never really saw anyone return to Canada to play soccer after university; everyone was always going overseas,” she said. “Now, having a chance to be part of this project with AFC Toronto, I know there’s nothing that can take away our part in history … Walking out at our home stadium for the first time is going to be surreal, and I can’t wait to represent this city.”

Before 2025, there was no active professional women’s soccer league in Canada. Most of them would need to travel to the U.S. and/or overseas to get a chance to play. In fact, a certain number of Canadian players (for example, ten players were allocated to the NWSL ahead of the 2021 season) were allocated to play in the NWSL, the pro women’s soccer league in the U.S. (Source: Canada Soccer).

So, for Small to be part of this league in Canada is significant not just for her, but for other Canadians as well.

READ MORE: Esther Okoronkwo: AFC Toronto’s Leading Goal Scorer

She has really excelled in creating goal-scoring chances, as she assisted in Colby Barnett’s game-winning goal against the Halifax Tides FC, as well as with one of Esther Okoronkwo’s goals. She even showed this ability to create scoring chances for her teammates against the Ottawa Rapid FC, in an unfortunate 4-0 losing effort at York Lions Stadium.

This is what Marko Milanovic said, which might be the biggest compliment from the head coach of AFC Toronto when asked by the writer of this article:

“Nicky has been great for us all year. I do not think she had a bad game all year,” Milanovic said. “We think she is one of the best players in the league.”

Since Milanovic said the above quote, the team has gotten two key wins against NSL opponents on the road. This included Small scoring two goals against the Calgary Wild FC in a tight 2-1 win at McMahon Stadium.

Those two goals scored by Small mean that she is the co-leader of the club, with three goals scored in total, along with Okoronkwo.

It would not be surprising that Small gets a call-up to the CANWNT/CANXNT sooner rather than later.

Games Coming Up for AFC Toronto

READ MORE: PWHL and NSL: A Bond Like No Other

For AFC Toronto, their next game will be against the Halifax Tides FC on June 21 at 4:00 pm ET. That game will happen at York Lions Stadium, home of AFC Toronto.

AFC will be travelling back to Toronto after playing two games on the road in Calgary and Vancouver.

Photo Credit: CREO Visions/AFC Toronto on June 7, 2025.

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