Akeem Garcia, Marco Bustos and Kyle Bekker up for CPL’s Player of the Year Award

CHARLOTTETOWN — HFX Wanderers forward Akeem Garcia and midfielders Marco Bustos of Pacific FC and Kyle Bekker of Forge FC are finalists for the Canadian Premier League Player of the Year Award.

Garcia, a Trinidad & Tobago international, leads the Golden Boot race with six goals heading into Saturday’s Island Games final in Charlottetown between Halifax and defending champion Forge FC of Hamilton. Bustos has five goals while Bekker, a finalist for last year’s award, has three.

The Golden Glove Award for top goalkeeper is between Christian Oxner of HFX Wanderers, Triston Henry of Forge FC and Callum Irving of Pacific FC.

The Coach of the Year finalists are Stephen Hart of HFX Wanderers, Bobby Smyrniotis of Forge and Spain’s Mista of Athletic Madrid.

Best U21 Canadian player is between Mo Farsi of Cavalry FC, Chrisnovic N’sa of HFX Wanderers and Julian Dunn of Valour FC, who is on loan from Toronto FC.

The winners will be selected by a media panel.

Winners will collect a unique piece of Inuit art, each carved by an artist from Kinngait (formerly known as Cape Dorset), Nunavut.

The CPL’s Island Games wrap up Saturday with Forge FC facing HFX Wanderers FC in the championship game at the UPEI Artificial Turf Field.

CPL Award Nominees

Player of the Year

Marco Bustos, Pacific FC; Akeem Garcia, HFX Wanderers; Kyle Bekker, Forge FC.

Golden Glove

Triston Henry, Forge FC; Callum Irving, Pacific FC; Christian Oxner, HFX Wanderers.

Coach of the Year

Stephen Hart, HFX Wanderers; Bobby Smyrniotis, Forge FC; Mista, Atletico Ottawa.

Canadian U21 Player of the Year:

Mo Farsi, Cavalry FC; Chrisnovic N’sa, HFX Wanderers FC, Julian Dunn, Valour FC.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2020.

The Canadian Press