CPL Announces New Awards, 2022 Voting Procedures

Toronto, ON – The Canadian Premier League will hand out Defender of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year honours for the first time in 2022, expanding its annual end of season awards from five to seven categories.

Voting for all seven of the CPL’s annual awards will this year be based on performances during the regular season, not including Canadian Championship, Concacaf or playoff action. Nominees will be selected by members of the CPL’s league office. To be nominated, players and coaches must have appeared in or coached at least one game during the 2022 CPL regular season.

“We are delighted to add two new individual awards this season, providing more opportunity to celebrate the successes within our league,” said Commissioner Mark Noonan. “Defender of the Year is a central honour in any sports league, while Players’ Player of the Year will quickly become among our most coveted awards because of the prestige associated with being recognized by peers.

“We are grateful to Ruben Komangapik for the care he took in conceptualizing and crafting the beautiful sculptures that will be handed out to the winners, which will join the CPL’s existing collection of custom awards by celebrated Indigenous artists.”

The Defender of the Year award will recognize the league’s best defender during the 2022 regular season, with the winner selected by a panel of voting media members. Voters will choose the winner from a shortlist of three nominees.

The Players’ Player of the Year award will be the first CPL award to be voted on by players, who will select the peer they believe put in the most valuable performance on the field during the 2022 regular season. Each player will be asked to provide a three-man shortlist to determine the winner. Players cannot vote for themselves or include a teammate on their ballot.

This year, for the first time, the Coach of the Year award will be voted on by the head coaches of each team and one assistant coach per club. Coaches cannot vote for themselves, and assistant coaches cannot vote for their club’s head coach.

Indigenous artist Komangapik worked with the CPL to design its two new awards. Komangapik is a Quebec-based artist originally from Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), Nunavut known for his mixed media sculptures, among other works, that showcase the culture he inherited from his family, in particular his grandfather Joshua Komangapik. He finds inspiration in Inuit…