The 2010 Canadian men's player of the year is Atiba Hutchinson.
With the national team playing a year without important games the award came down to club play. On that front there were few equals in 2010 than the 27-year-old Brampton native. It was his first win.
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It's hard to think of a Canadian player that`s had as much club success as Hutchinson in a single year -- perhaps only Owen Hargreaves, since, as I like to remind those that argue that he would never have had the success he had if he had chosen to represent Canada, he was still Canadian when he won the Champions League in 2001.
In 2010, Hutchinson won the Danish SuperLiga double, transferred to PSV, was named the SuperLiga's player of the year and has started 17 of 18 games for PSV, who sits on top of the table and has qualified for the knock-out stage of the Europa League.
The only other player that might have had an argument is Josh Simpson, but his list of accomplishments can be summed up in two words ("he's scoring") as opposed to the paragraph needed for Hutchinson.
As with the women's award, the CSA got this right. Hutchinson continues to improve and has clearly bypassed Julian de Guzman as the country's best player. The media voters continue to get it right too by following the unwritten rule that the only players given consideration are those that chose to represent Canada internationally.
Hutchinson was very appreciative of winning. He named it as one of the highlights of his career during the press conference today. He was also bullish on the national team's chances in next year's Gold Cup and spoke of the need for the nats to play more home friendlies to help prepare them for home qualifying games.