Atiba Hutchinson (born 8 February 1983) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder. He is currently a free agent, having last played for Süper Lig club Beşiktaş. While playing in Denmark he won the Danish Super Liga Player of the Year, becoming the first North American player to receive the award. That same season, Hutchinson won the first of six Canadian Player of the Year awards. Between 2010 and 2013, he played for PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivisie. He is widely considered as the greatest Canadian soccer player of all time.
In 2012 as part of the Canadian Soccer Association's centennial celebration, he was named to the all-time Canada XI men's team. Hutchinson is Canada's record cap holder and the first male Canadian soccer player to reach over 100 caps.
Club career
Early career
Hutchinson was born in Brampton, Ontario, to Trinidadian parents. He began playing youth soccer at age four for Brampton Youth SC and later played youth soccer for North Scarborough SC and Woodbridge Strikers. Following a March 2001 trial at Schalke 04 in Germany, Hutchinson began his professional career in the 2002 summer season, playing briefly with the York Region Shooters of the Canadian Professional Football League before signing with the Toronto Lynx of the then A-League in mid-season, on 26 July, and playing in the team's final four games.
Öster
In January 2003 he signed with Östers IF, newly promoted to the Swedish Allsvenskan. Hutchinson scored six times for Öster during the 2003 season. With the club relegated out of the Allsvenskan, Hutchinson was granted a transfer for an estimated £1.32 million and signed with Helsingborgs IF in January 2004.
Helsingborg
Expectations were high for him the first season in Helsingborg, but they were ultimately unsatisfied. However, in the 2005 season he was consistently the team's best player, scoring six goals from a primarily defensive midfield position.
Copenhagen
Hutchinson moved to Danish club F.C. Copenhagen, where, for the first half of the year, he played alongside Swedish international Tobias Linderoth in central midfield, latterly being used around the midfield and as a striker. Manager Ståle Solbakken said in an interview with the football paper TIPS-bladet, that he saw Hutchinson's attacking talents as being too impressive for a central midfielder, saying that he would be used more often as winger. He was linked with Premier League clubs several times.
After Hutchinson had left Denmark for his new team in the Eredivisie he was awarded Danish Super Liga Player of the Year for his last season with Copenhagen. This award was given on 15 November 2010 by Franz Beckenbauer at the annual Danish Football Association award show. This was the first time a Canadian had won this award in the Danish League.
In 2014, 32,000 fans participated in a fan vote selecting their 11 all-time favourite Copenhagen players, selecting Hutchinson in the midfield.
PSV
On 22 April 2010, Hutchinson signed a three-year contract with PSV Eindhoven joining them on a free transfer. Atiba made his PSV debut in a 6–0 home victory against De Graafschap on 14 August 2010. Four days later he made his European debut for the team in a surprising 1-0 first leg defeat to FC Sibir Novosibirsk in the Europa League, however PSV won the second leg 5–0 making it to the next stage of the competition. Atiba scored his first goal with the Dutch side on 23 January 2011, his goal came in the 46th minute of a 3–0 away victory against VVV-Venlo. Hutchinson started the 2010 season playing a defensive role as a right back, however with the mid-season transfer of Ibrahim Afellay to Barcelona allowed Hutchinson to move into his more natural position of the central midfield. Atiba continued to impress through the winter scoring his second goal of the season in a 3–2 away victory against Excelsior on 5 March 2011. Atiba also help lead PSV to the Quarter Finals of the Europa League before being knocked out by Benfica in mid-April losing 6–3 on aggregate.
Hutchinson was forced to miss the beginning of the 2011–12 Eredivisie due to his knee injury sustained with Canada at the Gold Cup that summer. After missing the first two games of the season Hutchinson made his return on 21 August 2011 as a second-half substitute for Zakaria Labyad against ADO Den Haag, the game ended in a 3–0 away victory for PSV. Weeks later Hutchinson sustained yet another knee injury during a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification against Saint Lucia forcing him to have his third knee operation in 18 months. Despite this, he started the KNVB Cup final for PSV against Heracles Almelo, which PSV won.