Lausanne/ Switzerland: Indian men's hockey team player Harmanpreet Singh has been voted as FIH Player of the Year for the second successive year. Singh plays defence and is also the vice-captain of the team, IANS reported.
The 26-year-old Singh was honoured with the award for his gal scoring ability, which has risen up a level in the past year. Many teams found his penalty-corner drag flicks difficult to deal with, IANS reports.
Singh scored a record 18 goals from 16 games, including two hat-tricks, in the Pro League 2021/22. He had become the top scorer for India with 18 goals at the end of the season. He also holds the record of scoring the most goals by a player in a single season of the Pro League.
Harmanpreet Singh was in terrific form during the Asian Champions Trophy Dhaka 2021. He scored eight goals from six matches. He had scored in every single game then, and India finished on the podium. He also performed well for India in the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, where India won silver.
Singh is just the fourth player to win the honour, in the men's category, for consecutive years. Teun De Nooijer (Netherlands), Jamie Dwyer (Australia) and Arthur van Doren (Belgium) are the other three.
Singh's points tally was 29.4 points, followed by Thierry Brinkmann with 23.6 points and Tom Boon with 23.4 points.
Meanwhile, Felice Albers of the Netherlands has been named the FIH Players of the Year 2021/22 in the women's category.