Harmanpreet Singh wins record making hockey honour

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Harmanpreet Singh has won the FIH Player of the Year award in the men’s category, for the second year back-to-back. This places the 26-year-old at par with others to have the same achievement including Teun De Nooijer of the Netherlands, Jamie Dwyer of Australia, and Arthur van Doren of Belgium.

According to the FIH, he was awarded the honour due to multiple skills including his ability to defend, infiltrating the opponent’s offense and ball progression with dribbling, which have all contributed to him scoring a high number of goals. Singh’s total points were 29.4, which has a substantial gap from the point of the players at second and third place, with Thierry Brinkmann and Tom Boon having 23.6 and 23.4 points respectively.

He also scored 18 goals in 16 games at the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021-22, which included three hat-tricks and made him India’s top scorer as well as the record holder for the highest number of goals by a player in a single season. Overall, Harmanpreet has had a superlative season, where he also scored 8 goals in 6 games at the Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka, which meant a goal in every game, and ultimately led India to a third-place finish. The silver medal won at the CWG in Birmingham also benefited from key performances by him.

The women’s FIH Player of the Year award was won by Felice Albers of Netherlands, who at the age of 22, is the youngest player to win the award, a record which was previously held by Natasha Keller of Germany in 1999 and is also the second youngest overall in the history of the awards. Albers won the honour after having a total of 29.1 points which is slightly ahead of the 26.9 points obtained by Maria Granatto, while Agustina Gorzelany placed third with a total of 16.4 points. After entering the Dutch national team following impressive performances at the junior level where she played both as a forward and midfielder, Albers has scored 16 goals in 32 international matches.