Twenty-one year old soccer player, Ezequiel Lubocki won the Jewish Athlete of the year and the Max and Idy Nusgart Memorial Award on June 13, 2013 at the Rady JCC 41^st Y Sports Dinner.

“I was definitely surprised to be nominated. I was not expecting it and I was flattered to know that my progress in Toronto was being followed. I was also surprised and honoured to actually win the award since the other candidates were strong and involved in more mainstream "Canadian" sports like Hockey,” Lubocki told the WJR. 

Lubocki was born in 1992 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and became interested in soccer at a young age.

“I was probably about  three  or four when I began to kick a ball around. Soccer was very much a part of the culture there, and my passion for the game has continued to grow since then,” said Lubocki who moved to Winnipeg at the age of ten. 

“I attended Gray Academy from Grade five until Grade ten , and afterwards I moved to the University of Winnipeg Collegiate for my last two years of high school. Also, I did attend BB camp for four consecutive years until my commitments with soccer impeded my attendance.” 

For the past three years, Lubocki has been attending the University of Toronto playing mid-fielder for the Varsity Blues.

“I am currently majoring in History and Peace, Conflict and Justice Studies at the University of Toronto. In the latter major, I have chosen to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Lubocki who also enjoys traveling, music, politics, and reading science fiction.

“I have extensive time commitments for soccer and University. However, I was able to attend an exchange program at Hebrew University this past summer and I volunteer to promote the program at the University of Toronto. This summer I will be attending the Maccabiah Games in Israel representing the Canadian Soccer Team.”

Lubocki has been a part of the National Training Centre program since he was 14 years old and has represented Manitoba at the Western Canada Games and the Canada Summer Games as well.  He was also on the Under 17 Canadian National Team that competed at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Tijuana, Mexico in 2009.

At the University of Toronto, he was named an OUA East first team all-star for the second year in a row. In 2010, he was named the OUA East rookie of the year and a first team all-star and was named the Varsity Blues male rookie of the year. Previously, he was also named Manitoba’s 2009 youth player of the year, and he was also twice named the athlete of the year.

 The other nominees for the award were Kyle Doering for curling, Daniel Faiman for hockey, Simon Garfinkel for hockey, and Jayden Pollock for hockey.