For the second time in his career, Tristan Borges has been named the Canadian Premier League’s Player of the Year.

The Forge FC midfielder was revealed as the winner of the award for the 2024 season at the CPL Awards ceremony on Thursday night in Calgary.

Borges was voted the league’s top player in the 2024 regular season by a panel of select media members and technical leadership from all eight clubs.

The 26-year-old Toronto native was a star in his fifth season with Forge, leading his team with eight goals — tied for fifth in the CPL — and contributing six assists, which was joint-second most in the league. He played 24 games in the regular season, helping lift the Hamilton club to a league-leading 50 points and the CPL Shield.

He also led the CPL with 0.74 goal contributions per 90 minutes, and created the third most chances in the league with 41.

As Player of the Year, Borges was presented with the Nikisuittuq statue, a unique piece of Inuit soapstone art conceived of by artist Pitseolak Qimirpik and carved by Ruben Komangapik.

Borges was named this year’s winner from a group of five nominees, beating out Forge teammates Kyle Bekker and Alessandro Hojabrpour as well as Cavalry FC’s Tobias Warschewski and York United’s Brian Wright.

As mentioned, this is the second time Borges has won the Player of the Year award, having won the honour in the CPL’s inaugural season back in 2019. He also won the Golden Boot and Best U-21 Canadian Player awards that year.

He is the first player to be named Player of the Year multiple times, and has the most CPL awards under his belt with four total individual honours. Borges has also won the CPL championship with Forge three times, in 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Previous winners of the CPL’s Player of the Year award include Borges’ teammate Kyle Bekker in 2020, Halifax Wanderers striker Joao Morelli in 2021, Atlético Ottawa’s Ollie Bassett in 2022 and Cavalry FC defender Daan Klomp in 2023.