We are thrilled to announce the inaugural CPL50, a celebration of many of our players after a fantastic and unique year for all in 2021. Throughout December we will count down and reveal the best 50 players from the 2021 Canadian Premier League regular season, thanks to the work of a fantastic panel of prominent media members and coaches from within our league.

Ten media members who covered the league closer than anyone else and one coach from each team each sat down and compiled their best 20 players of the 2021 regular season. Coaches were not allowed to pick any players from his own club. Seven head coaches of the clubs involved participated, while Valour FC assistant coach Damian Rocke joined the process to represent their club as Rob Gale, and his replacement Phil Dos Santos, did not work the entire season.

Panel

Coaches:

Mista (Atlético Ottawa)
Tommy Wheeldon Jr (Cavalry FC)
Alan Koch (FC Edmonton)
Bobby Smyrniotis (Forge FC)
Stephen Hart (HFX Wanderers)
Pa-Modou Kah (Pacific FC)
Damian Rocke (Valour FC)
Jimmy Brennan (York United)

Media members:

Alf De Blasis (OneSoccer)
Charlie O’Connor-Clarke (CanPL.ca)
Matt Cullen (OneSoccer)
Kristian Jack (CanPL.ca)
Adam Jenkins (OneSoccer)
Benedict Rhodes (CanPL.ca)
Oliver Platt (OneSoccer)
Marty Thompson (CanPL.ca)
Emily Wilson (CanPL.ca)
Gareth Wheeler (OneSoccer)

Process:

Judges were asked to fill out their ballot with one question in mind: Who was the best player in the Canadian Premier League in 2021?

All votes were counted and completed before the playoffs started. This is based on the regular season, with each team playing 28 games in total. No coach was allowed to vote for any of his own players, and with each team featured once in the ballot it meant that all players at any position were eligible to appear on 17 of the 18 ballots. Once all 18 ballots were received they were placed into a spreadsheet through a points system (20 points for 1st down to 1 point for 20th) to produce the best 50 players of the campaign. In the event of a tie, the player featured on more ballots was given the higher ranking.

Countdown:

We will release the list in groups of five over two weeks, counting down to the top five and the winner to be revealed on Wednesday December 22nd.

Wednesday, December 8th: 50-46

Thursday, December 9th: 45-41

Friday, December 10th: 40-36

Monday, December 13th: 35-31

Wednesday, December 15th: 30-26

Thursday, December 16th: 25-21

Friday, December 17th: 20-16

Monday, December 20th: 15-11

Tuesday, December 21st: 10-6

Wednesday, December 22nd: 5-1