Harmanpreet Singh of India was named the FIH Player of the Year in the men’s category for the second time. The 26-year-old is only the fourth player in history to win Player of the Year (men’s category) in consecutive years, joining Teun De Nooijer (Netherlands), Jamie Dwyer (Australia), and Arthur van Doren (Netherlands) (Belgium).
“Harmanpreet Singh is a bona fide modern-day hockey superstar. He is a terrific defender with a knack for being at the right place at the right time to breakdown the opponent’s offense,” FIH said in a statement.
“He has great dribbling skills to carry the ball up the field from defense. And he scores goals, goals and more goals! To add to that impressive resume, he has now been voted the FIH Player of the Year, for the second year running.” Harmanpreet’s total points tally stood at 29.4 points, followed by Thierry Brinkmann with 23.6 points and Tom Boon with 23.4 points.
In the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021-22, the India vice-captain has scored an incredible 18 goals in 16 games, including two hat-tricks.
With those 18 goals, he finished the season as India’s leading scorer and now holds the Pro League record for most goals scored by a single player in a single season.
Harmanpreet was also in excellent form at last year’s Asian Champions Trophy in Dhaka, scoring 8 goals in 6 games as India finished on the podium.
His performances were also crucial for the Indian team, which won a silver medal at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
