Josip Keran, a veteran standout attacking defender with Toronto Croatia, was voted the MVP of the Canadian Soccer League at a well-attended annual awards night held at Kitchener Saturday, a prelude to the CSL Championship Day being held at nearby Waterloo on Sunday afternoon.
Keran, 30, was considered to have played a big defensive role in the Toronto team’s second place finish in the CSL First Division and a the team is a finalist in the championship game against SC Waterloo being played at Warrior Field, Waterloo, a 4 pm kickoff on Sunday. Keran also found the net 10 times for Toronto Croatia in regular season games.
Most goals in the CSL First Division were scored by Richard West, a striker with York Region Shooters who struck 23 in the regular season – 10 goals in two games near the end of the season – while Nikola Stanojevic of Burlington SC was voted the league’s defender of the year.
The annual Rookie of the year award went to Ihor Melnyk of expansion club Toronto Atomic FC.
Andrew Stringer of Burlington SC picked up the best goalkeeper in the CSL First Division and Vasil Ischak of Atomic was voted the best coach in the league’s top division.
MVP of the CSL Second Division is Brantford Galaxy reserve team’s Arsenije Japalak and Nikola Miokovic of Burlington SC reserves was the top scorer in division two with 15 goals in the 2015 campaign.
The defender of the year award in the CSL Second Division was awarded to Namanjar Sudar of Brantford Galaxy reserves, rookie of the year is Kingma Zach, also of Brantford Galaxy reserves, Ihor Vitiv, of Toronto Atomic reserves, is the top goalkeeper in Division Two and Amir Osmanlic of Milton reserves was voted the best coach in division two.
Goran Babic was voted the referee of the year in the Canadian Soccer League, Cyndy De Thomasis of York Region Shooters was elected as the recipient of the year’s Harry Paul Gauss Award to reflect the top individual who contributed to the league with effort, dedication and allegiance in 2015.
Club’s honoured were Serbian White Eagles for finishing on top of the CSL First Division, SC Waterloo B for winning the CSL Second Division in the regular season, and Burlington SC won the Fair Play and Respect Award.
