Michelle Heyman hints at Canberra United future amid club uncertainty | OneFootball

Michelle Heyman wants to stay at Canberra United, but the Matildas striker has made clear that the club’s unresolved future cannot drag on much longer.

With Canberra heading into an A-League Women elimination final, the bigger question remains whether the club will have the stability needed for players to commit beyond this season.

That is the tension running through this latest round of Transfer News. Canberra’s most iconic player is still fighting for the club, but she is also spelling out the professional reality facing any squad asked to wait without answers.

Michelle Heyman: what she said about Canberra United’s future

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s A-League Women Elimination Final against Melbourne Victory, Heyman did not hide her frustration. Per Football 360’s report, she said she wants Canberra United to survive, but not at the cost of players being left in limbo again.

“Of course I want Canberra to be here but you want the right people running the club,” Heyman said.

“For me, as a group, as a player, we’re not going to be waiting around like last year. This is our profession, our careers that people are toying with at the moment.”

“So if we don’t know by the end of our next game, Canberra might not even have players to come back to,” Heyman added. “If the A-Leagues really don’t want us, I assume players will have to walk because it’s our career path and we have to continue to play football, and that would be somewhere else then.”

She also framed the uncertainty through the support around the club, calling Canberra one of the best-backed sides in the competition and thanking fans for sticking with them. That matters, because these comments were not about angling for a move so much as warning that professional players cannot keep planning blind.

The ownership and licence uncertainty at Canberra United

Canberra United have been here too often in recent years, with ownership and funding doubts repeatedly clouding the club’s future despite its place as one of the foundation names in the A-League Women. The two-time champions are still waiting for longer-term clarity while current owners Capital Football are set to step away at the end of 2025-26.

The Australian Professional Leagues have previously intervened elsewhere, including to help Central Coast in January and Perth in 2023. Heyman was asked directly whether the APL should do the same here, and her answer was simple: yes.

What remains unclear, at the time of writing, is exactly what structure Canberra will have in place beyond the current arrangement and when that certainty will be formalised. In a league still dealing with bigger questions around sustainability and structure, those issues sit alongside wider debates about the women’s game in Australia, including the financial disparities highlighted in She Kicks’ coverage of the Matildas Asian Cup pay gap and broader competition shifts such as league expansion and playoff changes elsewhere in the game.

Canberra’s case feels especially stark because this is not a club short on identity, fanbase or football history. It is a governance problem, not an argument for whether the club belongs.

Why Heyman’s future matters for Canberra United

Michelle Heyman is not just another senior player weighing up options. She is the A-Leagues’ all-time leading goalscorer, a club legend, and still pushing to stay in the Matildas picture ahead of the next international window in June after limited minutes at the Asian Cup.

That makes her future a useful signal of Canberra United’s health. If a player with her ties to the club is publicly saying there has to be a decision point, the most obvious reading is that patience inside the dressing room is close to spent.

Heyman has also made clear that she is still fighting on both fronts. She wants trophies with Canberra, and she wants to keep earning international chances with the Matildas, having said she stayed home to work on her fitness and improve after not getting as much game time at the Asian Cup.

For Canberra, losing her would mean more than goals. It would mean losing the player who has most visibly carried the club’s identity through this uncertainty.

What needs to happen next

The next pressure point is straightforward: Canberra United need credible clarity on ownership and long-term participation, and they need it quickly. Without that, this story will move from loyalty and defiance into genuine transfer market consequences.

Saturday’s final at McKellar Park may shape the mood, but it will not resolve the underlying issue. Until there is a settled plan for the club’s future, every Canberra United squad decision – and plenty more A-League Women player-movement stories across the Australian game – will continue to be viewed through that uncertainty.