Samantha Chang signs with AFC Toronto, the team she helped beat in the NSL final

By Canadian Press on January 8, 2026.

TORONTO — Midfielder Samantha Chang, who captained the Vancouver Rise to the inaugural Northern Super League title in November, is joining the AFC Toronto team she helped beat in the final.

It’s a homecoming for the 25-year-old midfielder, who hails from suburban Mississauga. Chang, whose Vancouver contact had expired, has not lived in her hometown since leaving for the University of South Carolina in 2018.

Soccer then took her to Torreense in Portugal and HB Koge in Denmark before signing with Vancouver last January.

“Having to go abroad to play in college and then professionally in Europe, it’s nice to think that I’ll finally be at home for once,” Chang said in an interview.

Toronto will be happy to see Chang out of opposition colours.

With a slide-rule pass from distance, Chang provided the assist on Holly Ward’s winning goal in Vancouver’s 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Toronto in the Nov. 15 NSL championship game at BMO Field. And she opened her NSL scoring account with a brace in Vancouver’s 2-1 regular-season win over visiting Toronto on July 24.

Her other two goals came in a game against Ottawa.

“I think she’s different from our current midfielders,” said Toronto sporting director Billy Wilson. “She’s very versatile. She can play as that No. 8 (a box-to-box midfielder). She can also hold (play as a defensive midfielder).”

Chang also excels at set plays.

“We’ve got ourselves a very talented player, but above all just (someone who) showed a real desire to play for the club, to come home and represent her home city,” Wilson said. “That was evident from very early on in our conversations.”

Toronto, which topped the regular-season standings last year at 16-6-3, signed several key players to contract extensions last month, including teenage forward Kaylee Hunter, goalkeeper Sierra Cota-Yarde and midfielder Nikki Small.

The club’s success has not gone unnoticed.

“There is interest in some players,” Wilson said. “And if it’s a right move for that player, we will not stand in their way.”

Toronto has already moved out seven players, trimming a roster enlarged due to injuries last season.

“We want the rest to come back,” Wilson said. “We know there’ll be one, maybe two outgoing from the returning group. We’ve already signed a couple of players, Sam being one of them, who will come in and give us that freshness. We don’t want the roster to be static.”

Chang and the Rise had exchanged farewells on Tuesday.

“We want to thank Sam Chang for her leadership, drive, and impact on and off the field,” Vancouver said in a social media post. “Wearing the armband in the second half of the season, Sam captained us to the inaugural Northern Super League championship, a moment forever etched in our club’s history. We wish Sam the best for what’s next. Forever a 2025 Rise FC champion. Thank you, Sam.”

“Together we had a storybook ending,” Chang wrote in a separate post. “No matter what, we will forever be the first champions. Not a goodbye but a see u later.”

Joining Toronto means reuniting with fellow midfielders Emma Regan and Sarah Stratigakis. The three have risen through Canadian ranks together from under-15 up.

Chang roomed with Stratigakis at the 2014 CONCACAF U-15 Championship in the Cayman Islands — both scoring in the penalty shootout as Canada downed Haiti in the final. Regan, who turned heads last season both with Toronto and Canada, and Chang were also teammates at HB Koge.

Chang has three Canada caps, making her senior debut at the 2021 SheBelieves Cup in a 1-0 win over Argentina. Chang also made a pair of substitute appearances at the Pinatar Cup in Spain last February.

“It’s my dream to play for Canada in a major tournament,” she said.

Chang, who captained South Carolina, started the season as a member of the Rise’s leadership group and took over as skipper after veteran defender Shannon Woeller suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in an Aug. 2 game against Ottawa.

Chang and Woeller hoisted the Diana B. Matheson Cup together at the conclusion of the NSL final.

“I wish them the best,” Chang said of the Rise. “Maybe not when they’re playing against us in Toronto.”