Welcome to CPL50, a series where we’ll reveal the top 50 players from the 2021 Canadian Premier League regular season, as voted on by a panel of coaches from all eight teams and media from OneSoccer and CanPL.ca. For more information on the voting process and method, click here.
Up next in CPL50 is perhaps the league's most consistent goalscorer, with FC Edmonton striker Easton Ongaro. The six-foot-six forward is the CPL's all-time leading scorer with 25 goals since 2019, and in 2021 he was once again one of the most frequent threats. He scored 12 goals this year to finish second in the Golden Boot race, making him by far the Eddies' most potent weapon up front. Ongaro played all but one of Edmonton's games this year, contributing just under 2,000 minutes. Ongaro, a 23-year-old Edmonton native, has an excellent nose for goal, constantly putting himself in the right position to finish a scoring opportunity. He can find the net with a shot from pretty much anywhere, and he's got the strength to be a good target man in the box as well. Ongaro is obviously an incredible threat in the air based on his towering height, but he's also deceptively quick and comfortable with his feet. His workrate off the ball is fantastic as well, as he constantly looks to put pressure on defenders to win it back and punish mistakes. Ongaro signed with his hometown club before the 2019 season, though he'd been selected in that year's CPL-U SPORTS Draft by Albertan rivals Cavalry FC. He spent two years at the University of Alberta, where he caught the eye of several CPL coaches. He hasn't looked back since landing with the Eddies though, becoming one of the club's most consistent players. Their attack in 2021 was structured partly around Ongaro, who thrived with the good service of his teammates.
The rest of the CPL50 countdown is available here. Five more players will be revealed per day until December 22.
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