Mark Watson jokes that he is dating himself by telling this story, but his connections to soccer in Halifax go back a long way.

On July 5, 1991, playing for the Hamilton Steelers of the Canadian Soccer League in his second season as a professional, Watson and his club travelled to the East Coast to take on the Nova Scotia Clippers.

Knowing that it was a long trip out to the Maritimes, the Hamilton players spent several days exploring the city in advance of their match, a 1-0 victory. The Clippers lasted just one season as a professional club, but that trip made an impact on Watson.

“I remember it being a great city, good fanbase and had a really positive feel for it,” said Watson in an interview with CanPL.ca.

Some 33 years later (sorry Mark), Watson has returned to the seabound coast to join the Canadian Premier League’s Halifax Wanderers as a Senior Football Strategy Advisor. In this capacity, he will work with Wanderers founder and president Derek Martin to augment the club’s football operations.

It all started with a call from Martin, one where Watson says he didn’t exactly know what to expect.

He had followed the CPL during his time as the technical director of Major League Soccer’s Minnesota United. Halifax, in particular, caught his eye both for their incredible atmosphere as well as his connection to the club’s first-ever head coach Stephen Hart, whom Watson began his coaching career alongside with the Canadian men’s national team back in 2004.

But as conversations with Martin progressed, and the Wanderers president laid out both the club’s short- and long-term ambitions, Watson quickly became enthralled by the project and vision.

“I’m really impressed with the league and the growth six years in,” said Watson. “I think Halifax specifically has a really, really good following and business model, a strong match day experience at the Wanderers Grounds. And it just kind of grew to the point where I was looking forward to working with Derek and the group.

“There’s some really big plans for the future in terms of just continuing to grow in all aspects, the roster, facilities. It all came together and I’m really excited about the opportunity.”

For the past two decades, Watson has been plying his trade south of the border. He coached the San Jose Earthquakes and was an assistant with Orlando City and Minnesota United, before taking the role of technical director in Minnesota for five seasons.

But for the Canadian men’s national team’s eighth-most-capped player, and the man whose 67th-minute header against Trinidad and Tobago put Canada into the 2000 Gold Cup Final, joining the Wanderers will be a special homecoming.

“I’m excited about the chance to come home and work in Canada, and help the league move forward,” he said. “I think it’s part of the bigger picture that Canadian soccer is on. There’s just so much positivity right now in terms of the clubs, the youth development, the infrastructure, the success of the national teams — men’s and women’s — and the 2026 World Cup coming to Canada. There’s just so many positive things and I’m looking forward to being a part of it.”

His first task will be rekindling that positivity in Halifax. The Wanderers followed up a historic 2023 season by missing the playoffs this past year in a campaign which Martin recently called “simply unacceptable” in the media release announcing Watson’s hiring.

In his new role, Watson has already quickly gotten to work evaluating the processes, facilities and infrastructure — as well as, crucially, the roster — identifying ways that Halifax can improve at every level. Having seen all sides of the game in North America, as a player, coach and in the front office, he is in a unique position to right the ship. After years of ups and downs, the Wanderers are aiming to find more consistent success.

“It’s making a big push to be significantly better in 2025, and building a championship-level roster, and one that’s sustainable for the future,” said Watson. “The goal is to be an elite club in this league every year, making the playoffs and making a big push to win a championship.”

Big goals, but Watson believes the Wanderers have already built a strong foundation provided by the incredible fan support and gameday atmosphere the club gets at the Wanderers Grounds.

“If I was a player, I would want to play here,” said Watson. “You want that environment, and I think it’s a winning formula.”

With a background in MLS, and specifically with MLS expansion teams, he knows all about building squads with unique roster rules and constructing a team under a salary cap structure. In joining the CPL, however, he is excited about getting to work with one player pool in particular.

“The basic premise of this league is to help develop young Canadian players, I think it’s a huge foundation piece and something we’re really focused on,” he said. “Sure, you’re going to be supplementing with players from different markets to help the group. But there’s a real focus on developing Canadian kids.”

That is a huge motivator for Watson. He began his own illustrious career at home, where he had the opportunity to play for the Ottawa Intrepid, Hamilton Steelers and Montreal Supra in the CSL. That would give him the platform for what followed: time in Europe with Watford and Oxford United, multiple clubs in the early years of MLS, and 78 matches for the Canadian men’s national team.

“Just having that opportunity for young players to play that level, it was hugely impactful,” said Watson of the old CSL. “And a lot of players went on to play in Europe, played for the national team, and it was really clear that you’ve got a ton of talent, you just need to develop, and you need to have a place to play.”

He is seeing even greater possibilities with the Canadian Premier League, which has already existed for the same number of seasons as the CSL when it ultimately folded following the 1992 season. In the CPL’s six seasons, 11 current or former players have been called up by the senior Canadian men’s national team, with several others making moves to play in leagues across the world.

“If you have all the tools, you have the technical ability, athleticism, you’re motivated, you really want to do it well, you now have an opportunity to develop,” said Watson. “And I think there’s only more really good things to come in terms of developing these players to go on to bigger and better things.”

Watson believes the Wanderers can be a big part of this development process, but that means the club continuing to get bigger and better itself so that players are given the best standards possible. Plans are already in motion to do just that, and Watson is incredibly excited about his role in making those a reality.

“The plans for the future are really impressive,” says Watson. “It’s constantly growing every facet. The things that were not where they needed to be in terms of the infrastructure, stadium, training facilities, there are plans for these to be really first class. So that’s the exciting part. It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to grow in a sustainable way. But the future is really exciting.”

First things first, he says, is making sure that the team of the pitch gets back to winning ways in 2025, then building from there to make sure the organization reaches its potential at every level.

“We’re working daily to get to that point where we’ve got the infrastructure and the process where everyone knows what we’re doing, and initial success and then sustained success.”