FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2026: Winners Announced Tonight in Doha
Hockey’s biggest individual night is tonight. The FIH Hockey Stars Awards 2026 winners will be announced at the award ceremony in Doha, Qatar, where the federation is holding its Congress week.
Friday’s schedule in Doha pairs the National Associations Forum with the award ceremony itself. Saturday brings the 50th FIH Statutory Congress and a post-Congress press conference. It’s the first time hockey’s biggest awards night has been held in the Gulf, and with this being a World Cup year, the winners carry real weight.
The shortlists
The nominees were picked by a global panel of coaches, former internationals and TV commentators, using data from every international match in 2026: the Pro League, the World Cup qualifiers, the Nations Cups and the World Cup itself in Belgium and the Netherlands. Voting, from national-team captains and coaches, players, fans and media, closed on 30 September. The coaches’ and umpires’ awards are decided by experts, not the public vote.
Here’s who tonight’s about.
Women’s Player of the Year: Xan de Waard (NED), Charlotte Englebert (BEL), Sofia Cairo (ARG). De Waard’s is the farewell-story nomination: a glittering club career signed off with SCHC’s first EHL Women’s title last Easter, then a Pro League triumph and a World Cup final run with the Netherlands before retiring from all professional hockey. Englebert and Cairo are the next wave asking for the crown.
Men’s Player of the Year: Justus Weigand (GER), Tomi Domene (ARG), Tom Boon (BEL). This is the race of the night. Weigand has the golden year on his CV: a World Cup gold with Germany and a first German national championship with Hamburger Polo Club. Domene was the World Cup’s top scorer and helped Waterloo Ducks to the Belgian title. Boon, meanwhile, is the reigning 2025 winner and has been elite for more than a decade. For our money, Weigand’s World Cup gold makes him hard to beat, but Boon won over journalists and coaches last year and could easily do it again.
Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year: Anne Veenendaal (NED), Jocelyn Bartram (AUS), Cristina Cosentino (ARG). Bartram won Goalkeeper of the Tournament at the World Cup itself, which is some argument.
Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year: Jean-Paul Danneberg (GER), Vincent Vanasch (BEL), Luis Calzado (ESP). Danneberg keeps stacking honours after a year of decisive shoot-out performances.
Rising Star of the Year: Germany’s Jakob Brilla and Justus Warweg face France’s Malo Martinache on the men’s side; Waterloo Ducks’ Famke Van Heel is on the women’s shortlist.
Why tonight matters
These awards have always been a marker of who’s defining the sport at that moment, and a World Cup year makes the signal louder. The next Pro League season starts on 8 December, so tonight’s winners will walk into the new season wearing the labels of the world’s best. We’ll have the full winners’ list on the site as soon as it’s announced.
The context: the FIH Executive Board’s Doha week, today’s Johor Cup Day 5 decider, and the Live Centre.
