The Canadian Premier League announced on Friday the nominees for the Player of the Year award, honouring the best player during the 2023 regular season.

Pacific FC’s Manny Aparicio, Forge FC’s Kyle Bekker, Halifax Wanderers FC’s Lorenzo Callegari and Cavalry FC’s Daan Klomp and Ali Musse make up this year’s five-player shortlist. The winner will be decided through voting by CPL club technical leadership and select media members representing local and national outlets who consistently covered the 2023 CPL regular season. 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.

Aparicio, 28, once again played a critical role for Pacific in 2023. The Tridents were winless in the four matches Aparicio did not start, or appear in, this season, suffering two losses and two ties. The CPL Player of the Week in week one, who went on to appear in the Gatorade CPL Team of the Week on six occasions in 2023, was Pacific’s second overall producer in front of net, scoring four goals and adding five assists. He won possession in the final third 21 times, second most among all CPL players, and was fourth among outfield players in recoveries with 153. Aparicio led his team with 55 shots and 15 shots on target and finished second among Tridents players with 133 duels won. This is a second straight Player of the Year nomination for Aparicio, who was also on the ballot in 2022.

Bekker, 33, continued to cement himself as one of the best players the CPL has ever seen in year five, capping off the regular season with a return to the Player of the Year ballot for the fourth time in the league’s handful of seasons. The 2020 CPL Player of the Year finished second in the league in assists with seven and added three goals. His 7.02 expected assists were the most among CPL players in 2023, and he finished the season tied for first in the league with 51 chances created. He also placed among the league’s best in delivering crosses and corners, and right-footed passes. Bekker earned Player of the Month honours in July 2023 — a month in which Forge went undefeated and he picked up three assists and created 14 chances — and was included in the Gatorade CPL Team of the Week on seven occasions.

Callegari, 25, took no time to adjust to a new league after signing with Halifax Wanderers FC in January 2023. A product of Paris Saint-Germain’s youth system, Callegari quickly showed his quality, bossing the middle of the field for the Wanderers in a season that would see the side set franchise records in wins, points, goals scored, goal differential, goals conceded and total passes, and finish third in the CPL standings. Going forward, Callegari led the league with 1,949 passes and 2,344 touches, picking up six assists from where he sat in front of Halifax’s defence. He won possession a league-high 224 times and finished among the league leaders with 42 tackles won and 34 interceptions. Callegari earned seven Gatorade CPL Team of the Week nods in 2023.

Klomp, 25, anchored Cavalry’s defence throughout the CPL regular season, becoming the only outfield player to appear in every minute for his club in 2023 and leading his team to its league-best defensive record. Klomp finished second in the league in passes completed with 1,494 and a 90 per cent passing accuracy. He ranked second in the league in blocks with 17, aerial duels won with 51 and possession won in the defensive third with 87. When Klomp wasn’t shoring things up at the back for Cavalry, he was having an impact up front: the defender scored four goals and added one assist in 2023. Scoring two of those goals in September helped Klomp earn Player of the Month honours, to go with his league-high 11 appearances in the Gatorade Team of the Week in 2023.

Musse, 27, shined throughout the 2023 season as a central part of the Cavalry side that went on to win the regular season title. He was a key producer up front, scoring five goals and adding six assists, while creating 46 chances — ranked fourth in the CPL — completing the second most dribbles at 70 and playing 117 passes in the opposition’s box. A two-time CPL Player of the week in 2023, who was also included in the Gatorade CPL Team of the Week seven times, Musse similarly had an impact on the defensive side of the ball, finishing among the top 10 in the league with 154 duels won. He ended the season among the league leaders in such categories as total shots with 54, crosses and corners with 99 and possession won in the final third, doing so 19 times.

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 Player of the Year award will receive a unique piece of Inuit soapstone art, carved by artist Pitseolak Qimirpik. The Nikisuittuq statue is a type of inukshuk, a stone landmark built to lead a traveller home. Its top stone points toward the North Star, making it an important landmark in navigation. 

The 2023 CPL Awards ceremony will be broadcast live 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.