The Worldwide Hockey Federation (FIH) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 FIH Participant of the Yr awards:
Ladies’s Participant of the Yr: Xan de Waard (NED)
Males’s Participant of the Yr: Tom Boon (BEL) 2024
Ladies’s Participant of the Yr – Xan de Waard (NED)
Xan de Waard delivered yet one more excellent marketing campaign for the Netherlands, mixing imaginative and prescient, technical precision and management on the highest degree. Her pivotal contributions and constant clutch performances all through the FIH Hockey Professional League season and the EuroHockey Championships, each of which led to triumphs for the world primary Dutch facet, have strengthened her standing as one of many world’s premier midfield skills.
Key highlights of her 12 months embody a commanding function within the Netherlands’ success on the European Championship, the place her incisive passing continued to be the connective tissue of the offence, whereas her tireless defensive work-rate contributed closely to one of the best defence within the competitors, because the Dutch facet gained a record-extending thirteenth title on the continental competitors!
She was additionally a standout presence within the FIH Hockey Professional League, constantly delivering in opposition to elite opposition, and because the captain, drove her crew’s momentum and success. Below her stewardship the Dutch girls’s facet picked up their fifth Professional League title in six seasons of the competitors’s historical past, ending the season eight factors away from the second positioned Argentina.
Her uncommon mixture of inventive spark and disciplined execution, make her an instrumental determine within the dominant Dutch facet’s tactical id and constantly spectacular outcomes.
For her elite customary of play, decisive management and unwavering consistency throughout the worldwide stage, Xan de Waard is a deserving recipient of the FIH Participant of the Yr Award.
Males’s Participant of the Yr – Tom Boon (BEL)
Over the previous 12 months, Tom Boon as soon as once more confirmed why he stays some of the harmful forwards in worldwide hockey. With a mix of razor-sharp goal-scoring instincts and the flexibility to ship within the large moments, he has been central to Belgium’s success for over a decade!
Boon was in rampant goal-scoring kind in the course of the FIH Hockey Professional League 2024/25 season. Mid-way by way of the season there have been a number of gamers vying for the top-scorer title, however Boon’s second half burst left his opponents within the mud, as he ended the season with 21 targets, 9 away from Sam Ward in second place!
His targets and assists proved decisive in Belgium ending second within the competitors, which matched their greatest outcome within the competitors since profitable the title in season two.
Tom Boon’s goalscoring exploits continued within the EuroHockey Championship 2025, the place he completed second on the top-scorers checklist of the competitors. And whereas Belgium didn’t safe a fifth consecutive podium end in Europe’s premier competitors, Boon’s scoring stick continued to perform on overdrive.
Tom Boon’s management presence by way of each seasoned expertise and present-day affect anchors Belgium’s attacking ambitions and aggressive edge on the world stage. His pivotal function in Belgium’s efficiency and enduring customary of excellence make him a worthy recipient of the FIH Participant of the Yr Award.
