After parting ways with San Diego Wave FC in June 2024, she took some time off, something she has never really done during her career but something that was important for her and her family. After retiring from a 20-year playing career in 2018, Stoney immediately joined Phil Neville’s staff with the England women’s national team. A few months later she was named the first-ever head coach for Manchester United Women, who she got promoted from the Championship to the Women’s Super League at the first time of asking and stabilized in the top flight before leaving for the Wave.
In San Diego, she was the 2022 Coach of the Year, won the 2023 NWSL Shield as regular season champions, and in 2024 won the NWSL Challenge Cup before being let go halfway through the season as the team sat outside a playoff spot.
“I’d had six months out of the game. Time to reflect, time to re-energize,” she said in an interview with CanPL.ca. “It was about waiting for the right opportunity, and this definitely was the right opportunity for me.”
Stoney was part of an extensive hiring process, during which Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue estimates he and the hiring team looked at 40-50 candidates. Angus McNab helped lead the search, along with several former players, Canada Soccer president Peter Augruso, and the leader of Canada Soccer’s Women’s Football Working Group, Sara McConaghy.
The attention to detail and the considerable way Canada Soccer went about looking to replace Bev Priestman was part of what sold Stoney on the organization and the opportunity, ultimately leading to her signing a contract through the 2027 Women’s World Cup, with an option to extend the contract through the 2028 Olympic Games.
“It was a good couple of months of first kind of initial sounding out conversations from them to me, then deeper conversations with Kevin himself, then more conversations with Kevin and Angus, who was heading up the process, plus some senior alumni players,” Stoney explained. “Then it was a flight to Toronto and an extensive interview, including technical, tactical tasks, cultural tasks, squad depth analysis, and then I got offered the job.
“Then I needed to make sure that the opportunity was right for me and my family, and then I couldn’t wait to get started. So it was extensive, but then I’m glad it was extensive, because the more I got to know Kevin and his leadership, the more I got to know the culture of the players, the more I understood more about the organization, the more determined I was and wanted to be involved.”
One of the people Stoney spoke to while considering the job was Jesse Marsch, who went through similar circumstances before being named Canada’s men’s national team head coach last year. She revealed that the pair spoke for over an hour, and that he played a big role in her pursuing the opportunity further.
Both coaches share the vision of wanting to not only win football matches, but to contribute to Canadian soccer in a meaningful way off the pitch as much as on it. Marsch has been vocal about needing to grow things from the ground up, starting with the pathway to the national team through League1 Canada and the Canadian Premier League — something that the women’s national team will be able to tap into as well in 2025 with the kickoff of the inaugural Northern Super League season.
Stoney and Marsch both look at the opportunity in front of them as a chance for the rising tide to lift all boats, from the youth level up to the very top of the pyramid.
“Obviously he’s come out the club game into the international game too, and he was a big reason really that I kind of moved towards entering even further into the process,” Stoney said of Marsch. “He spoke a lot about this being a partnership, working together across the Canadian soccer landscape, and obviously trying to create an identity for Canada.
“He was very big on equity and parity too, which was a huge, huge plus for me, and a huge positive. It’s definitely been a positive, I’m really looking forward to working with him moving forward.”
Stoney played 130 times for England during her playing days, international experience that she believes will serve her well as she transitions into being an international head coach for the first time.
“I think you have a greater understanding of the player, the pressures they’re under, their expectations, their role clarity,” she said. “I played internationally for 18 years, so I understand the rhythm of international football, I understand the demands, and therefore I can empathize and be in the player’s shoes. I’ve also been in every role, I’ve been left out of teams, left out of tournaments, picked, not picked.
“How I manage the players in the environment is going to be key, but I’ve got great experience of, if I’m honest, what wasn’t great for me, and how I could change that. Getting to know them as people is going to be really important, and understanding who they are and how I can manage them effectively, but I can do that because I’ve had experience.”
One of the highlights of Stoney’s playing career was the 2015 Women’s World Cup, held in Canada, where England finished third for what was at the time their best-ever result in the tournament. England played in several stadiums from coast to coast — in Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Edmonton. The Lionesses played, and eliminated the hosts in the quarter-finals, with Stoney unaware that she was up against her future employers.
“[The World Cup] was an incredible experience, because we played in so many different cities, and some of the cities are incredible,” she said. “It’s so diverse here, in terms of every city looks completely different so we had some really good experiences. Playing Canada in Vancouver, in their home World Cup, the fans were incredible, the atmosphere was great.
“Obviously, it was positive for us because we won, but it was one of the best World Cups I’ve ever played at because of the place that it was.
Stoney captained England 19 times across her career. She also wore the armband for Great Britain at her home Olympic Games at London 2012, where Canada knocked them out in the quarter-finals en route to a bronze medal of their own.
“One of the biggest privileges and honours you can have is to captain your country, and it was incredible for me,” she said with a big smile across her face. “I did it when I was quite young for England, and then eventually got the armband full-time, and then Team GB as well. It was just an honour really, an absolute honour. Money can’t buy those types of memories.”
Canada doesn’t have any competitive matches on the schedule for 2025, which can be frustrating in some ways, but a “blessing” for a coach like Stoney who is going to be integrating herself into a new setup. This situation allows her to make gradual changes and try out new combinations of players, instead of rushing to get everything done at once ahead of a tournament.
Stoney said that Canada is strong defensively and difficult to beat, so the next evolution is sparking new life into the attack — something Canada has been looking for over the past few years.
“We don’t need to change too much too quickly,” she said. “Let’s not forget, they’ve been very successful over the last year. The fact that they got out of a group at the Olympics after being docked six points, haven’t been beaten in open play, this program is very, very strong. It’s just about progressing the style of play a little bit more now, working with the players.
“It also gives me an opportunity to look at younger players as well and try and bring them into the squad at the right times, give the right caps to players and continue to build the philosophy that we want to play, build the identity whilst we’ve got the time to be able to do that.”
With all of that in mind, Stoney’s short, medium, and long-term priorities are set. Up first is the invitational Pinatar Cup in Spain in February, and after that will be several windows where Canada will need to book friendlies to fill their schedule.
“The next week is to continue to get my feet under the table and understand more about the organization, more about the staff, get to know them, and obviously we’ve got a camp to plan for. So medium term is about planning for the camps, making sure we’ve got the right opposition in place, understanding what opposition that we’ve got and who do we need to get to prepare us for qualification and also for the World Cup.
“Longer term, it’s to try and help support Canadian soccer and have an impact in a positive way.”
