Jan 13, 2023 at 11:59 am
Floris Wortelboer has been an international player for almost six years, played more than seventy international matches and was already European champion once. But due to years of bad luck, the 26-year-old hockey player will only make his debut at a global tournament on Saturday at the World Cup. “Under national coach Jeroen Delmée it feels like a new beginning.”
For Wortelboer, the moment he boarded the plane to India without any physical discomfort at the beginning of January was already a highlight. “That is really an important tick for me to tick,” he says on the day of the last training on Dutch soil in the clubhouse of HC Rotterdam.
It is an understandable reflex, because Wortelboer knows better than anyone how it feels to miss a tournament at the last minute. The defender of HC Bloemendaal had to follow the 2019 and 2021 European Championships, the 2018 World Cup and – not unimportantly – the 2021 Olympic Games from the Netherlands.
Of course, Wortelboer occasionally saw a match of his teammates, but above all he tried to look for distraction. For example, during the games at the Games he often sat on the water with his friends from Teteringen in Brabant.
The painful defeats in the final of the World Cup in 2018 (loss after shoot-outs against Belgium) and the Olympic Games in Tokyo (eliminated in the quarter-finals by Australia) hardly did anything to Wortelboer. “If they perform well, you know what you are missing. But if they perform less, no one talks about it anymore. However painful that is for those guys.”
A common image in recent years: Floris Wortelboer has to watch while his teammates are on the field. Photo: Pro Shots
One shoulder, the other shoulder and a ‘wrong mindset’
‘Carrot’, as he is called by many in the hockey world, already became European champion in 2017 at his first tournament in Amstelveen. It seemed like the start of a glorious international career, but after that he celebrated few successes. The Red line in the story? “That’s the recurring bad luck I’ve had with my shoulders.”
It started in 2018 with his left shoulder, which dislocated during a competition match with Bloemendaal. Less than a month later he was back on the field, but just before the World Cup it went wrong again. He fell on that conscious shoulder again and saw his first global tournament pass by.
Wortelboer was again not present at the European Championships in 2019. Then the man from Brabant was passed because, according to then national coach Max Caldas, he had “no professional mindset”. A choice he still doesn’t understand.
‘Carrot’ focused on and circled the European Championships and the Olympic Games in his agenda. He underwent surgery to finally say goodbye to his injury. The headache file seemed closed, until he suffered another shoulder injury in March 2021. Now not the left but the right. He trained as hard as he could, but Caldas didn’t dare select him. He was home again for two tournaments.
Floris Wortelboer with Terrance Pieters during one of his 74 international matches. Photo: Pro Shots
‘Let this be such an unforgettable tournament’
Wortelboer is known as one of the atmosphere creators within the Dutch team. On the day of the final training on Dutch soil, this is immediately reflected in the way he fools around with his teammates. He revives completely under the reign of national coach Delmée, who replaced the retired Caldas after the Olympic Games and provides a breath of fresh air.
Due to the new staff, group and division of roles, the overall picture is much more correct. “That also has to do with how much you like to go through fire for someone,” says the 74-time international. “It feels like a new period to me since the arrival of Delmée. Or actually even a new beginning. I hope everything will happen from now on.”
Wortelboer and his teammates are not favorites in India, but the world top in men’s hockey has been close together for years. “Then let this become a tournament that we will still be talking about in twenty years’ time. Then I will have been there too,” he says with a laugh.
Wortelboer starts his World Cup with the Orange on Saturday at 3 p.m. against Malaysia. After that, New Zealand and Chile respectively are the opponents. The Netherlands is expected to meet a major opponent for the first time in the quarterfinals.
World Cup program Orangemen
January 14 (3pm): Netherlands-MalaysiaJanuary 16 (3pm): Netherlands-New ZealandJanuary 19 (3pm): Netherlands-Chile
Image: Pro Shots
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