Dwayne De Rosario has never taken the easy path.

The Scarborough native, one of the greatest Canadian soccer players ever, was cut from the Ontario team as a teen. His professional career began with the Toronto Lynx in the fourth-tier league in North America.

After two seasons struggling for playing time in Germany, De Rosario returned to North America to suit up for the third-tier Richmond Kickers.

In 2001, four years after he started playing for a living, De Rosario was signed by former Canadian international player and team manager Frank Yallop, head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer.

On Friday, after 11 seasons as one of the elite players in North America’s top professional league, the 33-year-old attacking midfielder was crowned as its best, becoming the first Canadian to win MVP honours in MLS’s 16-year history.

As befits the playing career of the son of immigrants from Guyana, De Rosario’s path to his first MVP award was far from direct. He was traded twice this season, from Toronto FC to New York on April 1 amid a bitter contract dispute, and by the Red Bulls to D.C. United in late June.

Along the way, De Rosario became the first MLS player to score a goal for three different teams in one season. He tallied a career-best 16 in all, tied for the league lead, but took the Golden Boot award by virtue of his 12 assists, which made him the only player in 2011 to hit double digits in both categories.

“Different systems, different coaching, different philosophies, different teammates, everything,” De Rosario told reporters at Friday’s award ceremony in Carson, Calif. “Fortunately, I had people everywhere that took me into their team and allowed me to adapt. I’m happy with where I ended up, with a great organization and great teammates.”

De Rosario becomes the first MVP in North American professional sports history to play for three different teams in the year he won the award. He’s also just the second ever to be traded during an MVP season, following the NHL’s Joe Thornton, who was sent from Boston to San Jose in 2005-06.

De Rosario got the nod over Brad Davis of the Houston Dynamo and Brek Shea of FC Dallas. Both teams made the playoffs. D.C. did not, fuelling the eternal debate about how valuable a guy can be on a non-playoff team.

But the argument for De Rosario was too compelling, making him the first MLS MVP from a non-playoff team. His post-season record is stellar — he’s won four championships and is the only two-time MLS Cup MVP.

“If I could exchange this to play (in Sunday’s league final), I would in a heartbeat,” De Rosario said. “I’ve never played for personal achievements. I play for team accomplishments.”

The award capped an incredible past few days for De Rosario, who was an MVP finalist in both 2005 and 2006.

Last Thursday, he was named to the MLS Best XI for a record sixth time. And on Tuesday in Toronto, he scored from the penalty spot in Canada’s 4-0 win over St. Kitts and Nevis in World Cup qualifying, moving into a tie with Dale Mitchell as the team’s top all-time goal-scorer with 19.

In an interview with the Star earlier this week, De Rosario reflected on his season and said the two trades and some people suggesting he was washed up all served as motivation over the course of a “very difficult” season.

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“I guess you can say it sparked a little something where you kind of feel that people don’t really appreciate what you’re really doing or what you’ve done and you continue to do gets overlooked,” he said. “And, you just want to prove them wrong.

“That’s just something as a professional athlete. You’re only as good as your last game, so you always want to improve, every game, every year.”