Kenneth Heiner-Moller rejoins Canada Soccer as sporting director, national teams

Former Canada women’s coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller has been named to the new role of sporting director, national teams, at Canada Soccer, essentially becoming the top soccer dog in the organization.

“Reporting to the CEO, the sporting director is the senior executive responsible for the management of Canada Soccer’s national teams and high-performance initiatives,” says the official job summary.

While Heiner-Moller will report to CEO Kevin Blue, national team coaches Jesse Marsch and Casey Stoney will report to Heiner-Moller, according to a Canada Soccer spokesman.

“Kenneth is an internationally respected technical leader, and we’re excited to welcome him back to Canada Soccer,” Blue said in a statement. “His familiarity with our environment, combined with his diverse global experience as an executive and coach, will be vital as we strengthen our sporting structure and prepare for a crucial time in our organization’s history and the management of post‑World Cup growth.”

The 55-year-old Heiner-Moller, whose first name is pronounced Kenn-ett, has spent the last year as technical director of San Diego FC, joining the expansion MLS team in January 2025. Canada Soccer says he is expected to be “be engaged full time” come the summer after transitioning from his role at San Diego.

His arrival is timely given Canada’s role as World Cup co-host.

With Denmark having hosted some games at Euro 2020, Heiner-Moller has seen what doors a big tournament can open.

“There is so much to do afterwards,” he said in an interview. “So many great stories to build on … Everything that happens afterwards is going to be pretty special.”

Prior to joining San Diego, Heiner-Moller spent 4 1/2 years with the Danish Football Association, first as head of coach education and performance and then as technical director, where many of his duties were the same as he will have at Canada Soccer.

He stepped down as Canada coach in August 2020 to return to Denmark, citing a combination of the global pandemic, Olympic postponement and the Danish association job opening.

He took over as Canada head coach in January 2018, succeeding John Herdman, who left the women’s team to take over the Canadian men. He had served as Herdman’s assistant at the 2016 Rio Olympics, helping the Canadian women win bronze.he

Heiner-Moller left with a record of 20-10-5 as head coach and the Canadian women ranked eighth in the world. They were fifth when he took over, having risen up the rankings in the wake of the Rio medal.

Canada currently stands 10th under Stoney.

While the transition from Herdman to Heiner-Moller was seamless given their time together, the Dane brought a different leadership style.

The charismatic Herdman is a ball of motivational energy. Heiner-Moller is more laid-back, with an easy smile and calm demeanour covering a steely interior.

Under Heiner-Moller, Canada qualified for the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France and the Tokyo Olympics. The women exited the World Cup disappointingly in the round-of-16 after a 1-0 loss to Sweden.

Christine Sinclair became the world’s leading goal-scorer on Heiner-Moller’s watch, notching goals No. 184 and 185 to pass retired American Abby Wambach in an 11-0 win over an outmatched St. Kitts and Nevis on Jan. 29 at the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Championship in south Texas.

The move back to Canada is welcome for family reasons.

His wife Anja Heiner-Moller is coach of the Vancouver Rise, leading the team to the inaugural Northern Super League title in November.

Kenneth and Anja, who have two daughters, signed with San Diego and Vancouver 24 hours apart, taking advantage of breaks to spend time together. Kenneth said it helped that Tyler Heaps, San Diego’s GM and sporting director, is married to U.S. captain Lindsey Heaps, who plays her club football in France for OL Lyonnes, so he knows all about separation.

Kenneth will join Anja in Vancouver once his San Diego duties are done.

A former Danish international, Anja Heiner-Moller spent three years working as an academy coach with Vancouver Whitecaps FC and North Shore Girls Soccer Club from 2018 to 2020 while Kenneth was Canada coach.

She went on to coach the Danish under-19 national team for her native Denmark and previously spent time as assistant coach for the U-16 national team, head coach of Danish women’s league side Ballerup-Skovlunde Fodbold, head coach for the FC Nordsjælland U-18 women’s team, and head coach for the Brøndby IF U-18 women’s team.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 23, 2026