Atlético Ottawa’s Sam Salter named 2025 Players’ Player of the Year
Sam Salter of Atlético Ottawa has been named the 2025 Canadian Premier League Players’ Player of the Year.
Voting for the award took place in October and a total of 193 CPL players submitted their top three players, with five points awarded to their number one choice, three points for their second selection and one point for whomever they picked third.
Any player who played in the league in 2025 was eligible to vote and be included for consideration by the players. Players were not allowed to vote for anyone on their own team, and voting took place strictly based on how the players performed in the Canadian Premier League regular season.
In total, 41 players received votes during a process that saw players meet face-to-face with members of the Canadian Premier League office to give their choices. The results of the vote were revealed during Friday evening’s 2025 CPL awards show in Ottawa.
The Players’ Player of the Year is awarded the Muskox, a sculpture carved by Inuit artist Ruben Komangapik. The Muskox represents leadership, organization and defence of its most vulnerable members.
Salter finished with 542 points and was named on 128 of 166 possible ballots (77 per cent), receiving 88 first-place votes. He was not eligible to be named on 27 of them submitted by players from his own club. Salter’s total is a new CPL record for points in Players’ Player of the Year voting, well surpassing the previous high mark of 350, set by Ali Musse in 2023.
Salter received the most points (96) from Valour FC players, being named on 22 ballots with 15 first-place votes. Pacific FC players named him on 21 of their ballots and York United on 19 ballots.
Finishing second was fellow Atlético Ottawa attacker David Rodriguez with 449 points, named on just one fewer ballot than Salter, 127, with 51 first-place votes. Salter and Rodriguez combined for a lot of goals in 2025 and combined for 139 first place votes from a possible 166.
Forge FC playmaker Nana Ampomah finished a distant third with 93 points, named on 38 ballots with six first-place votes.
Forge FC defender, Dan Nimick, finished fourth with 91 points, named on 35 ballots with nine first-place votes.
Ali Musse of Cavalry FC, who won the award in 2023 and finished eighth in 2024, finished fifth this time with 79 points, named on a total of 37 ballots with five first-place votes.
Striker Julian Altobelli, York United, finished sixth with 70 points, named on 24 ballots with six first-place votes.
Forge FC skipper Kyle Bekker, runner-up for this award in 2023 and sixth in 2024, finished seventh with 63 points, named on a total of 33 ballots with four first-place votes.
Atlético Ottawa attacker Ballou Tabla finished eighth with 58 points, named on 22 ballots with five first-place votes.
Atlético Ottawa midfielder Manny Aparicio finished ninth with 55 points, named on a total of 20 ballots with four first place votes.
Rounding out the top ten was Halifax Wanderers striker Tiago Coimbra with 38 points, named on a total of 18 ballots with four first place votes.
The full top 20 is as follows:
- Sam Salter (Atlético Ottawa), 542 points
2. David Rodriguez (Atlético Ottawa), 449 points
3. Nana Ampomah (Forge FC), 93 points
4. Dan Nimick (Forge FC), 91 points
5. Ali Musse (Cavalry FC), 79 points
6. Julian Altobelli (York United), 70 points
7. Kyle Bekker (Forge FC), 63 points
8. Ballou Tabla (Atlético Ottawa), 58 points
9. Manny Aparicio (Atlético Ottawa), 55 points
10. Tiago Coimbra (Halifax Wanderers), 38 points
11. Tobias Warschewski (Cavalry FC), 36 points
12. Lorenzo Callegari (Halifax Wanderers), 32 points
13. Thierno Bah (Vancouver FC), 21 points
14. Kembo Kibato (York United), 15 points
15. Sergio Camargo (Cavalry FC), 14 points
16. Juan Castro (Atlético Ottawa), 12 points
17. Nathan Ingham (Atlético Ottawa), 10 points
18. Marco Carducci (Cavalry FC) & Jassem Koleilat (Forge FC), 6 points
20. Aly Ndom (Pacific FC) & Tristan Borges (Forge FC) 5 points
The following players also received votes and are listed in alphabetical order:
Noah Abatneh (Atlético Ottawa), Themi Antonoglou (Valour FC), Orlando Botello (York United), Mo Babouli (Forge FC), Elimane Cisse (Forge FC), Aidan Daniels (Pacific FC), Alejandro Diaz (Pacific FC), Kevin Dos Santos (Atlético Ottawa), Max Ferrari (York United), Alessandro Hojabrpour (Forge FC), Sergei Kozlovskiy (Atlético Ottawa), Hoce Massunda (Forge FC), Nicolas Mezquida (Vancouver FC), Kevin Ortega (Atlético Ottawa), Adam Pearlman (Halifax Wanderers), Sean Rea (Halifax Wanderers), Frank Sturing (York United), Yann Toualy (Pacific FC), Kris Twardek (Valour FC), Brian Wright (Forge FC).
