Aidan Thomas Sarikaya (born 3 July 1996) is a New Zealand

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

player who plays as a defender or midfielder for Belgian club Herakles and the

New Zealand national team New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

Club career

Sarikaya played for the Midlands team in the New Zealand National Hockey League. In 2019 he moved to Europe to play for Herkales in Belgium for the 2019–20 season.

International career

Junior national team

Sarikaya made his debut for the national under 18 team in 2014, at a qualifying event for the

2014 Summer Youth Olympics The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics (), officially known as the II Summer Youth Olympic Games , and commonly known as Nanjing 2014 ( zh, c=南京2014, p=Nánjīng Èr Líng yī sì), were the second Summer Youth Olympic Games, an international sports ...

. Sarikaya again represented the national U18 side at the Youth Olympics, held in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, China. In 2016, Sarikaya made his debut for the national under 21 team at the Junior Oceania Cup. New Zealand successfully qualified for the Junior World Cup in

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, where Sarikaya was also a member of the U21 side.

Senior national team

Sarikaya made his senior international debut in 2017, at the

International Festival of Hockey The International Festival of Hockey is a men's and women's invitational, international field hockey tournament hosted annually by Hockey Australia. The tournament is held in the Victorian cities of Bendigo and Melbourne. Format Founded in 2016, ...

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

. In 2018, Sarikaya most notably represented New Zealand at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

, where New Zealand won a silver medal.

References

External links

* * * 1996 births Living people New Zealand male field hockey players Male field hockey defenders Male field hockey midfielders Commonwealth Games silver medallists for New Zealand Commonwealth Games medallists in field hockey Field hockey players at the 2018 Commonwealth Games Field hockey players at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Medallists at the 2018 Commonwealth Games 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup players 2023 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup players Men's Belgian Hockey League players Expatriate field hockey players New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Belgium New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Germany Field hockey players at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century New Zealand people {{NewZealand-fieldhockey-bio-stub