India's standout defender Harmanpreet Sngh was awarded the FIH Player of the Year in the men's category on Friday. He won the title for the second time in a row.
The 26-year-old is only the fourth player in history to win Player of the Year (men's category) in consecutive years.
"Harmanpreet Singh is a bona fide modern-day hockey superstar. He is a terrific defender with a knack for being at the right place at the right time to break down the opponent’s offense," FIH said in a statement.
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"He has great dribbling skills to carry the ball up the field from the defense. And he scores goals, goals, and more goals! To add to that impressive resume, he has now been voted the FIH Player of the Year, for the second year running."
Harmanpreet finished with 29.4 points, followed by Thierry Brinkmann (23.6 points) and Tom Boon (23.4 points).
In the FIH Hockey Pro League 2021-22, the India vice-captain has an astonishing 18 goals from 16 games, including two hat-tricks.
With those 18 goals, he finished the season as India's top scorer and now owns the Pro League record for the most goals scored by a single player in a single season.
At the Asian Champions Trophy last year in Dhaka, Harmanpreet scored 8 goals in 6 games, scoring in every single game as India finished on the podium.
The FIH Player of the Year is Felice Albers of the Netherlands. The 22-year-old is the youngest recipient of the FIH Player of the Year award (women's category) since Natascha Keller of Germany (1999).
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