FIH Hockey World Cup: Most goals scored by a player in a single tournament

FIH Men's Hockey World Cup 2023 (Image source: Twitter)

Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup is just around the corner with the first shot of the ball to be made on January 13^th. The mega event is being hosted in India this time around which puts the one-time winner in an advantageous as well as slightly pressurised situation as well.

Big tournaments bring out the best in players, some of which go on to take the event by the scruff of the neck and dominate it. It is often that one player comes out on top in every Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup and overshadows all the others.

Let’s look at the top five players who have scored the most goals in a single tournament.

5. Luke Doerner, Floris Jan Bovelander, Ties Kruiz- 9

Ties Kruize

On number five there are not one, not two but three players who have scored 9 goals in a single tournament. Ties Kruiz of Netherlands became the first player to score 9 goals at the Hockey World Cup when he reached the magical number at the 1973 event.

Floris Jan Bovelander of the Netherlands matched the goalscoring feat in the 1990 World Cup in Lahore. The feat was achieved for the third time when Luke Doerner of Australia topped the 2010 Delhi World Cup charts with 9 goals.

4. Taco van den Honert, Jorge Lombi, Taeke Taekema- 10

Taco van den Honert

Similar to the 9 goals, 10 goals have also been scored by three players namely, Taco van den Honert of Netherlands, Jorge Lombi of Argentina, and Taeke Taekema of Netherlands. Honert scored 10 goals at the 1994 Sydney World Cup whereas Lombi scored the same number of goals in 2002, Kualalumpur. Taekema is the latest to score 10 goals at the 2006 Monchengladbach World Cup.

3. Rajinder Singh, Jay Stacy- 12

Rajinder Singh (Image source: Twitter)

The first and only Indian player on the list is Rajinder Singh who scored 12 goals at the 1982 World Cup in Bombay and became the highest scorer for that year. 16 years later Australia’s Jay Stacy matched the scoring with 12 goals at the 1998 World Cup in Utrecht.

2. Gonzalo Peillat- 14

Gonzalo Peillat (Image souce: Twitter)

The most recent player to feature on this list is Gonzalo Peillat who scored 14 goals at the 2014 Hockey World Cup in Hague and posted his name as the second-highest scorer at the tournament ever. Despite his goal-scoring exploits, Peillat could not take Argentina to a World Cup win as they could only finish 3^rd.

1. Paul Litjens- 15

Paul Litjens (Image source: Twitter)

The top scorer at a Hockey World Cup event is Paul Litjens of the Netherlands who scored 15 goals at the 1978 World Cup of Buenos Aires. The mercurial player however faced a heartbreak in the final as Pakistan defeated the Netherlands by 3-2 keeping Litjens away from the coveted prize.