So, here’s the question. Based on the criteria of most valuable to his or her team, to whom would you give the award (man, woman or both)? We at The 11 would love to know.

If, despite Sporting Kansas City’s protests, Stoke City does sign Teal Bunbury after he finishes his week on what the Potters are calling a “trial,” there could be a chance that Canadian soccer fans could forgive the striker. Could is the key word. Is it coincidence that Bunbury received a look-see from Stoke manager Tony Pulis just weeks after he made his debut for the Stars and Stripes — after famously deciding against playing for Canada — in a friendly against South Africa?

When FIFA names the winner of the female World Player of the Year, Christine Sinclair doesn’t even have to bother going to the ceremony. Marta, her teammate with the 2010 WPS champion FC Gold Pride, will likely walk away with her fifth win in a row. And, FIFA has already stated that the other two contenders for the award are …

Midfielder Atiba Hutchinson has won the Canadian Soccer Association’s male player of the year award for the first time. It might not be the last for Hutchinson, who went to high school in Brampton, Ont.’s Heart Lake neighbourhood. This season, Hutchinson left Copenhagen of the Danish League — but not before leading the club to a 2010 title and being named the league’s player of the year — for PSV Eindhoven of the Dutch Eredivisie. Hutchinson said walking onto the pitch at the Amsterdam ArenA, when PSV traveled to face Ajax, the hated rival, was a “dream come true.”

There’s no doubt about it. Canada’s soccer capital is... Brampton, Ont. Flowertown —the place that gave Canada Rick Nash, Scott Thompson from the Kids in the Hall, Michael Cera, Alan Thicke, Russell Peters, Rohinton Mistry and, ahem, this writer, is unquestionably the place to be if you want to raise a child who is going to be a soccer prodigy.

Alberta has made soccer news for the wrong reasons in 2010 as an ugly power struggle has crippled the Alberta Soccer Association. The province continues to be badly under-represented on most national teams, which are dominated by players from British Columbia and Ontario. The rise of BMO Field and Stade Saputo has made Commonwealth Stadium, once the official home of Canada’s national soccer team, a place reserved to host Canadian games only if they are World Cup qualifiers in winter months against Mexico, in hopes of freezing out the regional power. Gains made in boosting the game in Ontario and Quebec have taken a toll on Alberta. So, that’s why the selection of Ethan Gage as the country’s male U-20 player of the year is a big deal.

The Vancouver Whitecaps might only be joining MLS in 2011, but the club’s youth development programs is still miles ahead of TFC Academy. The Whitecaps Residency got another feather in its cap Monday when the Canadian Soccer Association named Bryce Alderson the country’s male U-17 player of the year.

The Canadian women’s team has been drawn into the Group of Death. And it might be the best possible boost this country’s bid to host the 2015 Women’s World Cup could have hoped for. The World Cup draw, held Monday in Germany, saw the Canadians grouped with the hosts, Nigeria and France, which is ranked in the top 10 on the planet. The opening game of the tournament will see the Germans face Canada on June 26.

While we are months away from finalizing the format for the 2011 Nutrilite Canadian Championship, we know this much; the chance of the Canadian Soccer Association going with a four-team full round-robin is nil. Under that system, each of the four clubs would need to play six games. There’s no time in either the MLS or NASL schedule to make that happen. Remember that a winner needs to be crowned before the summer, when CONCACAF needs the entrant for Champions League qualifying-round play. So, what is the likely course — and that is what is on the table at the moment — is a simple knockout Cup tourney. The four teams would be seeded; TFC would get the No. 1 slot, and would play the newbies, FC Edmonton. Vancouver and Montreal would play in the other series. The winners would face off in a true Cup final.

According to the CSA, FIFA expects a “minimum of six cities” to be hosts for the 2015 WWC, that’s less than the number we see for a men’s World Cup. When it comes to FieldTurf, the CSA isn’t expecting there to be any issues. The CSA noted that the recent U-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago had artificial fields that met FIFA specs. And, the U-20 World Cup final was played on the BMO, dammit, National Soccer Stadium FieldTurf in 2007.