Thomas Briels (born 23 August 1987) is a Belgian

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 ...

player who plays as a forward for Dutch Hoofdklasse club Oranje-Rood. He played a total of 359 times for the Belgium national team from 2006 until 2021.

Club career

Briels started playing at

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

when he was around five years old. In 2008, he signed a contract with the Dutch club Oranje Zwart in Eindhoven. He left Oranje Zwart in 2015 to return to Dragons. He returned to Eindhoven in 2018, when he signed for Oranje-Rood.

International career

Briels plays for the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

, for whom he had gathered 84 caps by 2009. In 2007 he qualified with Belgium for the 2008 Olympic tournament in Beijing where they would end up ninth. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed for the

in the men's tournament where they eventually finished fifth. With Belgium he became European vice-champion at the 2013 European Championship on home ground in Boom. At the 2016 Olympics, he was part of the Belgian team which won the silver medal. He was the captain of the Belgian team that won the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

and the 2019 EuroHockey Championship. On 25 May 2021, he was selected as the captain for the squad for the 2021 EuroHockey Championship. After the European Championship he was named as a reserve for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. Despite being named as a reserve he still played in seven of the eight games in the tournament where they won Belgium its first Olympic hockey gold. After the Olympics he announced his retirement from international hockey.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Briels, Thomas 1987 births Living people People from Wilrijk Sportspeople from Antwerp Belgian male field hockey players Male field hockey forwards Field hockey players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2012 Summer Olympics 2014 Men's Hockey World Cup players Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup players Field hockey players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic field hockey players of Belgium Olympic silver medalists for Belgium Olympic medalists in field hockey Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics KHC Dragons players Oranje Zwart players HC Oranje-Rood players Men's Belgian Hockey League players Men's Hoofdklasse Hockey players Olympic gold medalists for Belgium Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics