De Goede, Van Doren win 2018 FIH players of year awards

India continued to draw a blank as Netherlands' Eva de Goede and Arthur Van Doren of Belgium were on Thursday named as the International Hockey Federation's (FIH) Players of the Year for 2018.

Since the inception of the awards in 1998, no Indian hockey player has managed to bag the coveted awards.

While de Goede, 29, was named the Female Player of the Year, world champions Belgium's Van Doren, 24, was picked up as the Male Player of the Year for a second consecutive time.

Red Lions defender Van Doren is one of four Belgian winners in the FIH Hockey Stars Awards for 2018. Last year Van Doren claimed both the Player and Rising Star of the Year Awards.

Van Doren was not the only member of the Belgian set-up to win an award, with 31-year-old Red Lions shot-stopper Vincent Vanasch, a star performer in Belgium's shoot-out triumph over the Netherlands in the World Cup final, claiming 46 per cent of votes to win his second successive Men's Goalkeeper of the Year title.

Arthur De Sloover's ...