Harmanpreet Singh nominated for FIH Player of the Year after Olympic bronze heroics

Skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who powered India to a second successive bronze medal in hockey at the Olympics in Paris, was on Saturday nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award.

The 28-year-old ace drag-flicker, who was the top scorer at the Paris Olympics with 10 goals from eight matches, had previously won the award twice in a row from 2020-22.

"It is a great honour to be nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award again," the Indian defender stated in a Hockey India release.

"While I am elated to be named among some of the best players in the world, I would like to acknowledge that it would not have been possible without the support of my team.

"All the goals I have scored in the FIH Hockey Pro League, and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are because the team created those goal-scoring chances for me," he added.

Harmanpreet has been nominated along with the Dutch duo of Thierry Brinkman and Joep de Mol, Hannes Müller of Germany and Zach Wallace of England.

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 were taken into consideration.

The calm and composed India captain scored seven of his 10 goals through penalty corners while the remaining three goals were penalty strokes.

Harmanpreet described the Paris Olympics as the pinnacle of his career, expressing gratitude to his team for its unwavering support during challenging times, including his struggles with penalty corners in the previous World Cup.

"The Olympic Games in Paris was not just the highlight of the year, but the highlight of my whole career so far. The team has always had my back, especially during the World Cup last year where I couldn't get a goal from penalty corners.

"But the team didn't let me wallow or blame myself in any way and while there were a lot of reasons to perform at the Olympics and come back with a medal, I always had it in the back of my head that I needed to repay the faith the team has placed in me," he revealed.

Following a short breather after the Olympic Games, Harmanpreet led India's title defence at the Hero Asian Champions Trophy 2024 in Moqi, China.

Leading the team by example again, he scored seven goals in as many games and was named Player of the Tournament.

At the end of the tournament, Harmanpreet stood at the pinnacle of the sport having amassed a staggering 205 goals in 226 matches for the country, a feat only achieved by legends of the sport, Major Dhyan Chand and Balbir Singh Sr.

"The aim is to bring back the glory days of old. We will leave no stone unturned in order to realise this dream but we cannot do it on our own; we need support from our fans," he said.

"As the team prepares for the next Olympics cycle, I urge Indians to watch the sport and support us," he added.

Voting for the awards is open till October 11.