De Rosario is male selection for adidas Canadian Players of the Year award

The Canadian Soccer Association announced today that Dwayne De Rosario is the male selection for the 2007 adidas Canadian Players of the Year award. De Rosario was honoured in a vote shared by Canadian media (50%) and Canadian coaches who have taken the Canadian Soccer Association’s national course at the B and A levels (50%).



De Rosario of Scarborough, ON wins the award for the third-consecutive season. His co-winner – Christine Sinclair of Burnaby, BC from the Winners – women’s national team – has been the same in all three years.



In 2007, De Rosario took home MLS Cup Most Valuable Player honours after scoring the winning goal in the MLS Cup championship with the Houston Dynamo. It was his second-career MLS Cup MVP and his fourth-career MLS Cup championship. He also earned MLS Best XI honours for the third-consecutive season.



With the men’s national team, he played in eight international matches, five of which were at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in June 2007. He co-led the team with three goals at the CONCACAF Gold Cup (tied with Ali Gerba) as Canada reached the semi-final for the first time since 2002.



In all, he scored five times for Canada, the most of any male senior player in 2007 (ahead of Gerba’s four) and the most by a male senior player in one year since John Catliff in 1993 (six goals). De Rosario now has 12 goals in 44 career games with the senior team. He even has his first goal scored with the national team in Toronto – the tying goal in a 1:1 draw with Costa Rica on 12 September at the new BMO Field.



“Dwayne was among a number of senior national-team members to be impressive in 2007,” says head coach Dale Mitchell. “His combination of work rate and unpredictability make him a real problem for opposing defenders. I congratulate Dwayne on another award and hope his form continues through 2008.”



While the media across the country and coaches from the community levels to national teams honoured De Rosario and Sinclair as the top senior players, Canadian coaches honoured two pairs of teenagers earlier this week in other 2007 player award announcements. Asmir Begovic (Edmonton, AB) and Sophie Schmidt (Abbotsford, BC) were named co-winners of the Canadian U-20 Players of the Year award while Olivier Lacoste-Lebuis (Lasalle, QC) and Monica Lam-Feist (Surrey, BC) were named co-winners of the Canadian U-17 Players of the Year award.



Fan voting for the 2007 CanadaSoccer.com Fan’s Choices, meanwhile, runs through 20 January 2008. Fans can still make their two selections (one male, one female) to rscott@soccercan.ca.



FINAL LIST

Male players from the Men’s national team / Joueurs de l’équipe nationale masculine senior

1. Dwayne De Rosario (37.4)

2. Julian de Guzman (32.7)

3. Atiba Hutchinson (7.7)

4. Pat Onstad (7.6)

5. Paul Stalteri (5.3)

6. Ali Gerba (3.7)

7. Ante Jazic (1.6)

8. Richard Hastings (1.5)

9. Lars Hirschfeld (1.3)

10. Rob Friend (0.5)

11. Jonathan de Guzman (0.3)

11. Olivier Occean (0.3)

11. Mike Klukowski (0.3)

Female players from the Winners – Women’s national team / Joueuses de l’équipe nationale feminine senior Winners

1. Christine Sinclair (47.5)

2. Erin McLeod (21.0)

3. Rhian Wilkinson (6.9)

4. Candace Chapman (6.3)

5. Martina Franko (5.6)

6. Sophie Schmidt (5.0)

7. Diana Matheson (3.9)

8. Kristina Kiss (1.8)

9. Randee Hermus (1.5)

10. Brittany Timko (0.4)

11. Robyn Gayle (0.3)