THE CANADIAN PRESS
In a season filled with highs and lows, Julian de Guzman was named the winner of the 2008 Adidas Canadian male soccer player of the year Friday.
The Toronto native was chosen in a vote weighted evenly between Canadian media and coaches who have taken the Canadian Soccer Association’s national course at the B and A levels.
"For me it’s a great honour to get any type of award," de Guzman said in a conference call from Spain, where he plays professionally.
"I’ve never brought myself up to get awards or anything like that as a professional in my career but it’s always a bonus and something to cherish in the years to come."
This is the first year the male player of the year award — first handed out in 2005 — has gone to a player other than Dwayne De Rosario, who is de Guzman’s teammate when the two play for Canada.
"The last time (De Rosario) won it I asked him if he was willing to share that award with some of the other guys on the team because he’s been hogging for the past three years," said de Guzman, who has played for Canada 35 times at the senior level.
"We’ve joked about it many times and Dwayne’s deserved it every time he’s won it. He’s had such a successful career."
Christine Sinclair was named the 2008 female player of the year on Thursday for the fourth consecutive year.
De Guzman, 27, scored two goals in seven games for Canada this past year, including one during the disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign.
"With the national team it was pretty disappointing with not being able to qualify for the World Cup," said de Guzman, whose only two previous international goals came against Costa Rica in 2007.
"This was a team that everyone said was supposed to be the team to make the World Cup. I even believed it myself and I guess the most important talking turns out to be on the pitch, and we weren’t able to prove that."
A positive aspect of de Guzman’s season was his play for Deportivo La Coruna, which he helped earn a spot in the UEFA Cup, along with being named the team’s player of the year.
The focus for 2009 will to be a strong finish to the season in Spain and a decent Gold Cup campaign with Canada in the summer, he said.
With De Guzman’s contract set to expire, he said that although he would like to stay in Spain there are other possibilities throughout Europe.
"There’s been some offers coming from Spain, Germany and England," he said.
In another poll, De Guzman came second in 2008 fan voting conducted by the Voyageurs supporters group, which named midfielder-striker Tomasz Radzinski winner of its Canadian International Player of the Year.
Earlier this week, Sinclair’s teammate Jonelle Filigno and Nana Attakora-Gyan were named winners of the Canadian U-20 Players of the Year award while Monica Lam-Feist and Russell Teibert shared the Canadian U-17 Players of the Year award.