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Which CPL Club Got The Most Award Nominations?
By With the 2022 Canadian Premier League Awards ceremony set to take place this Friday in the nation’s capital, there were some 28 award nominations to be heard, 13 of which came from two new categories.
While only Atletico Ottawa and Forge FC are left in the running, we wanted to run down which teams collected the most player and coach nominations out of the bunch. Here’s how the numbers stacked up:
Forge FC and Pacific FC – Seven Nominations
Leading the league with seven nominations apiece is Forge and Pacific, who both underwent strong regular season campaigns.
Forge saw four personnel nominated, with Woobens Pacius up for Best U-21 Canadian Player and Players’ Player of the Year, Bobby for the elusive Coach of the Year, Becker for Players’ Player of the Year, and headline-maker Alexander Achinioti-Jonsson for Defender of the Year, Player of the Year, and Players’ Player of the Year.
Achinioti-Jonsson is one of just two athletes two earn three nominations this year, which Valour’s Sean Rea also accomplished.
Pacific also earned a Coach of the Year Nomination for James Merriman, Defender of the Year for Amer Didic, Golden Glove for Callum Irving, Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year for Manny Aparicio, and now-sold striker Alejandro Diaz claimed the Golden Boot (we’re counting this as a nomination, by the way) along with making the Players’ Player of the Year shortlist, too.
Atletico Ottawa – Six Nominations
When a club goes from worst to first in the span of a single season, you know a lot has gone right. There are two double-nominees in the mix with Ollie Basset and Ballou Tabla (Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year, respectively) with Nathan Ingham earning a golden glove nomination and Carlos Gonzalez proving a frontrunner for Coach of the Year.
All the nominations are well-earned, and we expect to see the Ottawa-based awards ceremony featured some deserved love for the hometown team.
Valour and York United – Three Nominations
Despite missing playoffs, both Valour and York United earned three nominations apiece, albiet in very different fashions: CF Montreal loanee Sean Rea earned all three nods for his side in the categories of Best U-21 Canadian Player, Player of the Year, and Players’ Player of the Year, which really nails home how important he’s been for the team.
The Nine Stripes split nominations between Osaze De Rosario (Best U-21 Player), Zator (Defender of the Year), and late-season addition Molham Babouli (Players’ Player Of The Year), who despite arriving in mid-August clearly hit the ground running and thoroughly impressed a number of the competition.
Cavalry – Two Nominations
The Spruce Meadows outlet earned two nominations this year, with Marco Carducci aiming for his second golden glove win and Alli Musse earning a players’ player of the year nomination following his breakout season.
The club would need to triple its nomination to at least match one of the other playoff clubs this year, which is perhaps something else Tommy Wheeldon Jr. might think is bull, too.
Halifax Wanderers and FC Edmonton – Zero Nominations
There was a sizeable contingent who thought head coach Alan Koch would be a contender for coach of the year after turning an ownerless, minimum-budget Eddies team into a competitive side, but FC Edmonton walk out of what may be the club’s final season with zero nominations to show for their efforts.
It was also a tough season out east without Joao Morelli for the Halifax Wanderers, with the club scoring the least out of any team and ultimately limping out of playoff contention before the sacking of Stephen Hart at the end of the year.
If we’re just counting how many personnel got nominated rather than the number of nominations themselves, we see a lot of parity: Pacific actually leads the way with five (granted, one no longer plays for them), with Atletico Ottawa and Forge having four apiece. York has three, Cavalry has two, Valour has one, and FC Edmonton and Halifax still finish bottom of the pack with none.
The 2022 CPL Awards ceremony till take place with Friday night at 7:00PM EST, two days ahead of the final between Atletico Ottawa and Forge.
Here’s a deeper dive into each award up for grabs, too:
Best U-21 Canadian Player Of The Year