- News release
Club icon Sander de Wijn quits after eighteen seasons at Kampong
Sander de Wijn is putting a stop to his career in top hockey after this season. The 35-year-old Kampong defender is currently in his eighteenth season in the Utrecht club's main squad, a club record.
De Wijn made the switch from Union to Kampong in 2008 and has since become a regular in the team and in the Tulp Hoofdklasse. Even in later life he remained a leader: in the 2023-2024 season he was named Best Player of the Hoofdklasse.
With Kampong, De Wijn had great successes. He became national champion three times and won the Euro Hockey League. He was also voted Best Player in the Hoofdklasse three times in total. De Wijn also left his mark in the Dutch national team. Between 2011 and 2021, he played 161 international matches, in which he scored eight goals.
'Sander is a club man pur sang and still one of the best in the league,' Roderick Weusthof, board member of top hockey, said last year when De Wijn extended his contract at Kampong for one year.
With De Wijn's farewell after this season, Kampong will lose not only a club icon, but also one of the most constant and defining defenders of recent years in the Hoofdklasse.
