Indian men’s hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh and veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh were awarded the FIH Player of the Year. Where Harmanpreet Singh was awarded the best player award and Sreejesh was awarded the best goalkeeper award.
Both Harmanpreet and Sreejesh received this honor during the 49th FIH Congress in Oman on Friday night, 8th November. Harmanpreet beat Netherlands’ Joep de Mol and Thierry Brinkman, Germany’s Hannes Muller and England’s Jack Wallace to clinch the top prize. Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh had scored the maximum 10 goals in the Paris Olympics. Apart from scoring goals in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, he scored both the goals for India in the bronze medal match against Spain.
India won the match 2-1 and secured a podium finish for the second consecutive time in the Olympics. Sreejesh, who retired from the game after the Paris Olympics, left behind Netherlands’ Pirmin Black, Spain’s Luis Calzado, Germany’s Jean-Paul Danneberg and Argentina’s Tomas Santiago in the race to win the top prize in the goalkeeper category. Harmanpreet had earlier won the FIH Player of the Year award in 2020-21 and 2021-22 but the third honor is important because she has achieved it after winning the Olympic medal.
This is his first honor as captain. Harmanpreet said, “First of all, I express my gratitude to FIH for this honour. It was wonderful to return home after winning a medal in the Olympics where a large number of people had come to welcome us. It was a very special feeling. I would like to mention my colleagues here. None of this would have been possible without you.” He said, ”I express my special gratitude to Hockey India for giving us the opportunity to achieve success at every level. My wife and daughter are here today and it means a lot to me to receive this award in front of them. So thank you to everyone who made this possible.
Sreejesh, who won two medals in the Olympics, also won the Best Goalkeeper of the Year award for the third time. Earlier he had won this award in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Sreejesh said, “I am very happy today.” Thank you for this last sporting honor of my sports career. This award entirely belongs to my team, the defense which ensured that most of the attacks did not reach me. This award goes to the midfielders and forwards who covered up my mistakes by scoring more goals than I conceded.