FIH Player of the Year 2026: the World Cup or the whole season?

Domene, Englebert and the question of what counts for more: a tournament or a year?

Saturday 29 August, Amstelveen. The women's World Cup final is level at 1-1 after sixty minutes and goes to shoot-outs. Cristina Cosentino saves three of the four Dutch attempts, and Sofía Cairó converts the decisive stroke. Las Leonas are world champions for the third time.

Just over two weeks later, the names are set for the FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2026. Cairó is on the list, so is Cosentino. In fact, fifteen of the eighteen nominees come from a country that reached the World Cup semi-finals. The panel had to consider the internationals of the entire calendar year, but those two weeks in Amstelveen and Wavre have clearly coloured the list.

That raises the question at the heart of this piece: does a two-week tournament count for more than a whole season? The answer decides who takes the Player of the Year award, for men and women, on 24 October in Doha.

The FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2026 shortlist: all the nominees

The FIH announced the shortlist on 15 September. Each category has three names for the women and three for the men.

• Player of the Year. Women: Sofía Cairó (ARG), Xan de Waard (NED), Charlotte Englebert (BEL). Men: Tom Boon (BEL), Tomás Domene (ARG), Justus Weigand (GER).
• Goalkeeper of the Year. Women: Jocelyn Bartram (AUS), Cristina Cosentino (ARG), Anne Veenendaal (NED). Men: Luis Calzado (ESP), Jean-Paul Danneberg (GER), Vincent Vanasch (BEL).
• Rising Star of the Year. Women: Claire Colwill (AUS), Zoe Díaz (ARG), Famke van Heel (BEL). Men: Jakob Brilla (GER), Malo Martinache (FRA), Justus Warweg (GER).

Three countries supply the most names: Argentina, Germany and Belgium each have four, the Netherlands and Australia two each. Spain and France have one each. The shortlist was drawn up by a worldwide panel of experts, mostly current national coaches, supplemented by former internationals and television commentators.

How do the FIH Hockey Stars Awards work and when do the winners follow?

The winners will be announced on 24 October 2026 during the 50th FIH Congress in Doha. Voting is still open until 30 September at 23:59. Experts, the captains of the national teams, media, fans and players all take part in the vote, with one vote per award.

How much each group counts has not been published for 2026. Earlier editions had a fixed weighting, but you cannot simply carry that over to this year. That matters for the outcome: a strong fan campaign in Argentina or Belgium could turn out differently from the judgement of national coaches.

FIH Men's Player of the Year 2026: Domene, Boon or Weigand?

Among the men, three players each had a different kind of year: a top scorer, a defending champion and a world champion.

Tomás Domene (Argentina): the top scorer who won almost everything

Domene (Córdoba, 1997) was the top scorer of the World Cup with ten goals and received the award for best player of the tournament. He scored a hat-trick against England, scored against Germany in the semi-final and also in the bronze-medal match against the Netherlands (2-1). Earlier this season he was already the Pro League's top scorer, with 21 goals according to the FIH figures. He also became the third Leones player with a hundred international goals.

His numbers come mainly from the penalty corner and from finishing the chances that a side like Argentina does not always create. What he lacks is the world title: in the semi-final Argentina lost 2-1 to Germany. Statistically, his case is the strongest of all the nominees.

Tom Boon (Belgium): king of the season without a World Cup medal

Boon (36) is the defending champion: he won the award last year and became Pro League champion with Belgium, including an LA28 ticket. The Hockey Paper wrote about him that he scored in eight consecutive matches. At the World Cup he scored five goals, four of them in the 5-3 win over Malaysia.

But the home World Cup ended for Belgium without a semi-final: after a 1-1 draw with Spain it was over, with a disallowed goal from Boon as the painful detail. It is the strongest argument for anyone who weighs the whole calendar year more heavily than two weeks of tournament.

Justus Weigand (Germany): world champion within a collective

Weigand (Mannheimer HC) became world champion for the fourth time with Germany after a 1-0 win over Spain in the final. He scored four goals at the tournament, including the opening goal in the semi-final against Argentina, and also won the European title this year. The DHB points above all to his role in the team when explaining his nomination.

That is also the weakness of his candidacy: the German success is a collective story, and his personal numbers trail those of Domene.

FIH Women's Player of the Year 2026: Englebert, Cairó or De Waard?

Charlotte Englebert (Belgium): best player of the World Cup

Englebert was named best player of the tournament and scored four goals. In the bronze-medal match against Australia she scored the only goal from a penalty corner (1-0), earning the Red Panthers their first World Cup medal since 1978. For Dutch readers she is no stranger: she plays in the Hoofdklasse for HC Den Bosch.

She combines two things that the other two do not both have: an individual World Cup award and a medal for her country.

Sofía Cairó (Argentina): world champion from the third division

Cairó (Mariano Moreno) converted the decisive shoot-out in the final and has become world champion. Hers is the story of a player who finished her university degree just before the World Cup and plays in a lower division. Although the Argentine press builds her up, her statistical case is thinner: there are no World Cup goal tallies to support her candidacy, and the Argentine sources themselves call Cosentino the big figure of the final.

Her strength is the story: the world title and the moment it was decided.

Xan de Waard (Netherlands): the farewell of an icon

De Waard is the only one of the three who has won before; the FIH roll of honour lists her as winner in the 2022-23 and 2024-25 editions. She won three world titles (2014, 2018, 2022), two Olympic golds (2021 and 2024) and retired after the lost World Cup final with 252 caps to her name. NOS wrote about her as a figurehead of Dutch hockey. After the final she said the Netherlands lost on bluff.

What is missing are specific 2026 numbers to underpin her candidacy this year. Her nomination leans on reputation and career.

FIH Goalkeeper of the Year 2026: who are the nominees?

• Luis Calzado (Spain): best goalkeeper of the World Cup and Player of the Match in the semi-final against the Netherlands (4-3).
• Jean-Paul Danneberg (Germany): world champion and defending champion; saved a shot from Borja Lacalle in the final.
• Vincent Vanasch (Belgium): played his 300th cap and won the Pro League, but Belgium fell short at the World Cup.
• Cristina Cosentino (Argentina): saved three of the four Dutch shoot-outs in the World Cup final.
• Jocelyn Bartram (Australia): best goalkeeper of the World Cup, with Australia in the top four.
• Anne Veenendaal (Netherlands): World Cup silver; nominated before but has not yet won the award.

Among the men it is Calzado (individual World Cup award) against Danneberg (title and defending champion). Among the women, Cosentino (final heroine) faces Bartram (World Cup award).

FIH Rising Star 2026: Díaz and Warweg as favourites

Among the women, Zoe Díaz is the front-runner: she was named best young player of the World Cup as world champion. Claire Colwill (Australia) is nominated for the second time, and 18-year-old Famke van Heel (Belgium) was called the revelation of the World Cup by Sporza.

Among the men, Justus Warweg is the logical favourite: best young player of the World Cup and, within 264 days, world champion at both U21 and senior level. His compatriot Jakob Brilla could cost him votes, because Germany supplies two of the three names. The third is Malo Martinache (France), who was promoted to the Pro League with his country.

Who is missing from the shortlist? Yibbi Jansen and the Spanish finalists

A striking absentee is Yibbi Jansen, who was the World Cup's top scorer among the women with eight goals. Did she suffer from mediocre open play? Is a strong drag-flick not enough? Among the men, Harmanpreet Singh and Mustaphaa Cassiem also scored eight goals each without being nominated, and José Basterra (seven goals) is not on the list either. Of the Spanish World Cup finalists only goalkeeper Calzado made the list, perhaps unsurprising given the unsporting behaviour in the semi-final, which equally applies to the Dutch men's team. Not a single Dutch man is nominated.

It shows that the shortlist is an overall assessment of the year, not a World Cup top-scorer list.

Who wins FIH Player of the Year? Cast your vote now!

You can of course help decide who wins! Go and vote now, you have until 30 September.

And if we may make a prediction? Among the men, Domene is the logical favourite: the strongest statistical case, the World Cup award for best player and a Pro League top-scorer title. Boon is the alternative for those who weigh the whole calendar year more heavily, Weigand for those who put the world title above all.

Among the women it is harder. Englebert has the strongest individual credentials and Cairó the strongest story. If the voters weigh the team title heavily, Cairó has a chance. De Waard is the outsider, unless her farewell year and career play a bigger role than her 2026 numbers.

One caveat: we do not know the weighting of the voting groups, and national federations can mobilise their supporters. So it may turn out differently from what the numbers suggest. On 24 October we will know.