MSOC: Mount Royal's El Gandour named Player of the Year
El Gandour becomes first Cougar to win award
VANCOUVER - After an outstanding season for the Mount Royal Cougars, Mohamed El Gandour was named the 2021 Canada West men's soccer Player of the Year on Thursday.
The third-year forward becomes the first Mount Royal Cougar to win the conference's Player of the Year award.
El Gandour led the Canada West in scoring with eight goals for his hometown Cougars. The Business major also led the conference in points, with 11.
The conference also announced three other individual major award winners on Thursday. Christian Rossi (TWU) was named the Rookie of the Year, Tobias Hyrich-Krueger was announced as the winner of the Student-Athlete Community Service Award, and Victoria's Bruce Wilson took home Coach of the Year honours.
The Victoria Vikes were also honoured as the winners of the Canada West Fair Play Award as the conference's least penalized team in the 2021 season.
For more on each of the award winners, click the header below:
MEN'S AWARD WINNERS
- Player of the Year: Mohamed El Gandour, Mount Royal Cougars
- Rookie of the Year: Christian Rossi, Trinity Western Spartans
- Coach of the Year: Bruce Wilson, Victoria Vikes
- Student-Athlete Community Service: Tobias Hyrich-Krueger, Saskatchewan
- Fair Play Award: Victoria Vikes
The Mount Royal Cougars are the hosts of the 2021 Final Four for the first time in their history after finishing in first-place in the Central Division.
The Cougars (6-1-3) will face the No. 2 seed out of the West Division, the UBC Thunderbirds (2-4-6). The semifinal match will kick off at 2:00 p.m. MDT in Calgary on Saturday.
In the first semifinal, it's the top seed out of the West Division, Victoria Vikes (6-3-3) taking on the No. 3 team out of the West Division, the Fraser Valley Cascades (4-3-5) at 11:00 a.m. MDT.
Sunday's bronze medal match is set for 11:00 a.m. MDT, with the championship to follow at 2:00 p.m. MDT. All four matches will be available live on Canada West TV Presented by Co-op.