Atiba Hutchinson is on top of the Eredivisie with PSV. He had a solid international year with Canada (although it was tarnished by 8-1) and seems to be on top of his game. It was clear to most of CSN’s voters that he was the No 2 choice to win the CSN Player of the Year.
Who was No 1?
Well, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
She was the Sportsnet Athlete of the Year.
She won the CP female athlete of the year.
Oh, and she won the Lou Marsh Award, symbolic of Canada’s top athlete in 2012 in all sports.
It would be kind of hard for CSN to not name her Player of the Year.
Winning the Golden Boot at the Olympics is a historical achievement for a Canadian player and although it would have been nice to see her score in the bronze medal game it’s hard to find any argument against her being Canada’s top player of either gender.
The one dissenting voice was the AFTN Canada votes. They had Hutchinson first. They felt that Hutchinson deserved the nod over Sinclair because of difference in the depth of field that they compete in – simply put, they felt it was much harder for Hutchinson to succeed at PSV than it is for Sinclair to compete in women’s international football.
However, that opinion was not widespread. It’s hard to imagine a soccer player ever having the type of impact on the general Canadian public that Sinclair did in 2012. It will be hard for her to ever surpass the highs of this past year.
Unless, that is, she can take things a bit further in 2015…
We can only hope.