CALGARY — The chance to return to women's soccer and on the ground floor of a new venture pried Lydia Bedford away from a Premier League club.
One of the few women to hold a coaching position within a Premier League team's system was introduced as head coach of the Calgary Wild on Friday.
The six-team Northern Super League scheduled to start its inaugural season in April will be Canada's first women's pro soccer league.
Bedford is the men's under-18 coach for Brentford FC in London until she and that club navigate her contractual exit to the Wild.
The 37-year-old from Guildford, England, previously managed Leicester City's women's team and was an assistant manager of Arsenal's women.
Bedford found the Wild job more tempting than trying to climb the men's coaching ladder with Brentford.
"I want to be a coach that progresses in the women's game, and I want to be renowned for what I achieve in the teams that I work with," Bedford said Friday at snow-covered McMahon Stadium, where the Wild will play its home games.
"This provides me with a great platform to come in and start with a team at the beginning of its journey where it's a level playing field, and my ability as a coach is what I get judged by, versus working in a league where the disparity might be massive between different teams and what you operate with."
When Brentford recruited her for its men's under-18 side in 2023, Bedford felt she couldn't turn down an opportunity few women get offered, even though her heart was in the women's game.
"Although I've really enjoyed the opportunity to be at Brentford, and it's a fantastic club with great people, there's always been a yearning to come back to the women's game," she said
"I've never had a long term aspiration to work at the top end of men's football.
"Maybe there could have been a chance to progress, but it wouldn't have been what really excites me to get out of bed in the morning. That's working in women's football."
Calgary’s Bedford joins fellow coaches Lewis Page (Halifax Tides FC), Robert Rositoiu (Montreal Roses FC), Katrine Pedersen (Ottawa Rapid FC), Marko Milanovic (AFC Toronto) and Anja Heiner-Moller (Vancouver Rise FC).
"This coming Monday, it's 100 days to kickoff, so that will come fast and furious," Wild chief executive officer Lara Murphy said. "There's no doubt we really had to get this across the line, but that said, we didn't want to feel rushed.
"She took a leap of faith, and we're so thrilled she did, but she saw the opportunity and really what this league will represent moving forward, where it's a moment in history."
Bedford took over a struggling Leicester City during the 2021-22 Super League season. The Foxes avoided relegation under Bedford, but she was replaced six matches into the following season.
She was assistant manager of an Arsenal side that finished third in the top table in 2023 when Brentford came calling. The U18 Bees have five wins, two draws and nine losses in the Professional Development League.
The Wild have signed nine players so far, including three Calgarians, Afghan-Canadian Farkhunda Muhtaj and three-time Olympian Meikayla Moore of New Zealand.
Calgarian and Wild goalkeeper Sarah Keilty-Dilling believes the confirmation of Bedford as coach can accelerate the signing of other players.
"It's the next piece of the puzzle for moving our team forward and it's a massive piece of the puzzle because it's also going to help finalize our roster," Keilty-Dilling said.
"The experience she brings working with Arsenal's women is crazy, because that club is a standard for the world for women's football."
Calgary winger Caleigh Boeckx says suspense among signed players was building until notified Thursday of their new coach.
"We've been bothering our leadership team all the time for the last for the last month or so. We're like, 'can you give us a hint?'" Boeckx said.
"It's very rare that you are signing to a team, and you don't know yet who your coach is, so that was a unique experience, but I think we had a lot of faith in the people that we knew were going to be making that decision.
"We're relieved to know that we've got somebody on board and somebody who's really qualified and going to be, I think, just really an awesome leader."
The NSL was co-founded by former Canadian international Diana Matheson.
Several athletes are among team investors, including Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair (Vancouver), Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey (Calgary) sprinter Andre De Grasse (Toronto) and sprinter Bruny Surin (Montreal).
— Neil Davidson contributed to this report.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press