The Footie Fool

The CSA has opened fan voting for the favorite Canadian soccer player of 2008. You have until January 20th (2008? should be 2009) to pick your favorite Canadian soccer player for the Fans Choice award.

I could make a good argument for many of the nominees, but this year I think my vote is going to Tomasz Radzinski.Tomasz Radzinski, a player who showed up in every outing for the MNT this cycle. Radzinski, who scored goals during his time in Greece and continues to do so in Belgium, albeit in the second division. Radzinski who had the balls to wear a Sack the CSA shirt and to try to call the Greek soccer organization on match fixing. Really, could there be a more fitting retirement for international soccer than to be named player of the year by the fans. Tomasz, my vote goes to you.

But I would also be happy with Ali Gerba, who popped 6 goals for Canada this year. Those are numbers hard to argue against. But he spent most of the year with no pro club and when he signed it was with MK Dons, a third level English side (where he continues to score goals). But it is still a third tier English side.

Mike Klukowski also had a great year for the MNT. No goals, but consistently solid performances on the left side. And his club side Bruges is at the top of the league in Belgium.

The three that are usually at the top of the list for me each year (DeRo, De Guzman and Hutch) are not there for me this year. As much as I love them, their failure to perform in WCQ tarnishes their year, despite Hutch and DeGuzman having great year’s for their club side. DeRo also had a good year at Houston, but not up to his previous performances.

Rob Friend failed to impress for the MNT, but is ripping it up in the Bundesliga, while Paul Stalteri had a poor WCQ and has played, um, zero games this season in the EPL (although he did contribute significantly to Fulham at the end of the season last year when he was on loan and helped them avoid relegation).

Once again the CSA has choosen the extremely high tech method of email to collect votes. C’mon guys, email? Can’t you just make a form or a poll? Why do I have to give you my email address to play along? Oh, so I can get on your email list….ahhhh, I see.

Fans can email their Fans’ Choices to rscott@soccercan.ca with the title ’CanadaSoccer.com Fans’ Choices’ in the subject line.

Here is the full list:

- Julian de Guzman – Scarborough, ON
- Dwayne De Rosario – Scarborough, ON
- Rob Friend – Rosetown, SK
- Ali Gerba – Montréal, QC
- Atiba Hutchinson – North York, ON
- Michael Klukowski – Oshawa, ON
- Paul Stalteri – Etobicoke, ON
- Tomasz Radzinski – Toronto, ON
- Adrian Serioux – Scarborough, ON

…and some more in depth player analysis from OOT.