The Canadian Premier League announced on Monday the finalists for its 2023 Players’ Player of the Year award, the lone award in the league voted on by the players.
The Players’ Player of the Year award will honour the best player over the 2023 regular season, as adjudged by his peers. Each player was asked to provide a three-man shortlist. That voting is subsequently used to determine the 10 finalists, as well as the ultimate winner. Players were not able to vote for themselves or include a teammate on their ballot.
The winner will be revealed at an in-person ceremony in Hamilton, Ont. on Thursday, Oct. 26, as part of the CPL Final weekend festivities
Ten players from five CPL clubs were named to the 10-man shortlist for Players’ Player of the Year on Monday:
- Manny Aparicio (Pacific FC)
- Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa)
- Kyle Bekker (Forge FC)
- Lorenzo Callegari (Halifax Wanderers)
- Terran Campbell (Forge FC)
- Massimo Ferrin (Halifax Wanderers)
- Daan Klomp (Cavalry FC)
- Ali Musse (Cavalry FC)
- Dan Nimick (Halifax Wanderers)
- Ayman Sellouf (Pacific FC)
Voting for all the CPL’s annual awards will this year be based on performances during the regular season, not including Canadian Championship, Concacaf or playoff action.
The winner of the Players’ Player of the Year award will receive a unique piece of Inuit soapstone art, carved by artist Ruben Komangapik. The Muskox statue was chosen to honour the Players’ Player of the Year award winner because the animal earns the respect of his herd through his leadership and organization and gains recognition from his peers for his commanding presence in the heat of battle.
The 2023 CPL Awards ceremony will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on dedicated soccer channel OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch. 980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s “big three” telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada. OneSoccer is also offered as an affordable streaming service through the OneSoccer.ca website, via Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV devices and with the OneSoccer app for iOS and Android devices.