Forge FC coach Bobby Smyrniotis is shown after Forge's 3-0 win over York United FC in the Canadian Premier League regular-season finale Oct. 18, 2025, at Hamilton Stadium. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Canadian Premier League - Michael Chisholm. (Mandatory credit)

By The Canadian Press

Forge FC’s Bobby Smyrniotis up for CPL top coach for a seventh straight year

Oct 31, 2025 | 10:30 AM

Forge FC’s Bobby Smyrniotis has been nominated for Canadian Premier League coach of the year for a seventh straight season.

Smyrniotis finally won the award last year after missing out his first five nominations. Excellence is expected, it appears, given Forge’s winning record.

He is up against York United FC’s Mauro Eustaquio and Atletico Ottawa’s Diego Mejía this year.

The winner, decided in a vote of CPL teams’ technical leadership and select media members, will be announced Nov. 7 in Ottawa as part of the CPL championship game festivities.

Last year, Smyrniotis won over Cavalry FC’s Tommy Wheeldon Jr., who collected the award in 2019 and ’23, and then-York United coach Benjamin Mora.

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Forge went unbeaten for 20 games (13-0-7) from the season start this year and finished atop the regular-season table at 16-2-10. The club scored 51 goals while conceding just 22, marking the second-best offensive and defensive outputs in league history. The goal differential of 29 was also the second-highest in league history.

Eustaquio guided York to a record-setting campaign in 2025, his first year as the helm after three seasons as an assistant coach. York, which finished fifth in the table at 10-10-8, scored a club-record 43 goals and finished the year with a franchise-high goal differential of five.

Under Mejía, Ottawa finished second to Forge in the standings at 15-2-11, improving its point total by 12 from the previous season. The club also set a league single-season scoring record with 54 goals while its goal differential of 26 was a franchise record ranking third-best in league history.

It’s the first nomination for both Eustaquio and Mejia.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2025

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press