Prolific Harmanpreet shortlisted for FIH Player of the Year award

Harmanpreet Singh, the Indian hockey captain, believes in leading by example. A little over a month after he was the leading goal scorer in the team’s campaign for a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, the penalty corner specialist fired seven goals as they retained the Asian Champions Trophy on Tuesday.

The exploits have not gone unnoticed as Harmanpreet has been nominated for the FIH Player of the Year award while veteran PR Sreejesh is in contention for the Goalkeeper of the Year honour in the shortlist announced by the world governing body on Tuesday. Sreejesh, the rock under the Indian bar, retired from the sport after four Olympic appearances and a stellar career.

The Asian showpiece in Hulunbuir, Mongolia saw the 28-year-old, who emerged as player of the tournament, reach the landmark when he became the first Indian men’s hockey player and 11th overall to score 200 international goals. It came in his 233rd international match in the semi-final of the 2024 Asian Champions Trophy against South Korea.

‘’I thank my teammates for reaching the landmark. It’s our forwards who create the penalty corners by putting pressure on rivals and my job is to convert the opportunities,’’ he told the broadcasters.

Scoring landmark

The affable officer of Punjab Police is only the second player from Asia to be in the 200-international goals club, Pakistan’s legendary Sohail Abbas tops the goal-scoring charts with 274 goals. Besides Abbas, Harmanpreet is now only behind Paul Litjens, Jamie Dwyer, Greg Nicol, Jorgi Lombi, Bjorg Michael, Floris Jan Bovelander, Taeke Taekema, Tuen de Nooijer, and Gonzallo Peillat.

Incidentally, Harmanpreet had achieved his 150th international goal milestone at the 2023 Asian Champions Trophy match against Malaysia at Chennai. He made his senior international debut against Japan during a four Test series played at Bhubaneshwar in May 2015 and took over the captaincy reins from Manpreet Singh.

Harmanpreet will be up against Thierry Brinkman and Joep de Mol (both from the Netherlands), Hannes Muller (Germany) and Zach Wallace (England) for the prestigious award.

Sreejesh was simply outstanding in Paris, particularly during the quarter-final against Great Britain where India held strong with only 10 men in the second quarter. India triumphed 4-2 over Great Britain in a penalty shootout to reach the semi-finals and later secured a 2-1 victory over Spain to claim the bronze.

Sreejesh faces competition from Pirmin Blaak (Netherlands), Luis Calzado (Spain), Jean-Paul Danneberg (Germany), and Tomas Santiago (Argentina) for the top goalkeeper’s honour.