Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh has been nominated for men’s Player Of The Year Award by the International Hockey Federation, while former Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will be in contention for the goalkeeper of the year award.
Both Harmanpreet and Sreejesh played key roles in India’s performance at the Paris Olympics, where the country went on to win bronze, defeating Spain 2-1.
The Indian skipper was the top goalscorer of the Olympics with 10 goals and will compete with Thierry Brinkman (Netherlands), Joep de Mol (Netherlands), Hannes Müller (Germany), and Zach Wallace (England) for the award.
With the Olympics being his last tournament for India, Sreejesh stood firm in front of the Indian goalpost, especially against the Great Britain when Amit Rohidas was suspended with a red card and India was reduced to 10 men in the second quarter of the quarterfinal.
India beat Great Britain 4-2 in penalty shootout to reach the semifinal.
Sreejesh has competition from Pirmin Blaak (Netherlands), Luis Calzado (Spain), Jean-Paul Danneberg (GER), and Tomas Santiago (Argentina).
“The list of nominees was established by an Expert Panel composed of players, coaches and officials selected by each of their Continental Federations,” the FIH said on its website.
“The expert panel was provided access to match data from all international matches held in 2024, including Test matches, the FIH hockey Pro League, FIH Hockey Nations Cups, FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers and the Olympic Games Paris 2024 before establishing the final list of nominees.”
The voting process will remain open till October 11 for national associations (represented by their respective national teams’ captains and coaches), fans, players, coaches, officials and media.
The expert panel consists of Janne Muller-Wieland (Germany) and Simon Mason (England) from Europe, Tahir Zaman (Pakistan) and Ms Deepika (India) from Asia, Soledad Iparraguirre (Argentina) and Craig Parnham (USA) from Pan America, Sarah Bennett (Zimbabwe) and Ahmed Youssef (Egypt) from Africa and Amber Church (New Zealand) and Adam Webster (Australia) from Oceania.
Nominees for FIH Hockey Stars Awards:
Women: Gu Bingfeng (China), Yibbi Jansen (Netherlands), Nike Lorenz (Germany), Stephanie Vanden Borre (Belgium), Xan de Waard (Netherlands).
Men: Thierry Brinkman (Netherlands), Joep de Mol (Netherlands), Hannes Müller (Germany), Harmanpreet Singh (India), Zach Wallace (England).
Goalkeeper of the Year Award:
Women: Cristina Cosentino (Argentina), Aisling D’Hooghe (Belgium), Nathalie Kubalski (Germany), Anne Veenendaal (Netherlands), Ye Jiao (China).
Men: Pirmin Blaak (Netherlands), Luis Calzado (Spain), Jean-Paul Danneberg (GER), Tomas Santiago (Argentina), PR Sreejesh (India).
Rising Star of the Year Award:
Women: Claire Colwill (Australia), Zoe Díaz (Argentina), Tan Jinzhuang (China), Emily White (Belgium), Linnea Weidemann (Germany).
Men: Bautista Capurro (Argentina), Bruno Font (Spain), Sufyan Khan (Pakistan), Michel Struthoff (Germany), Arno Van Dessel (Belgium).
(With inputs from PTI)
Comments
SHARE