‘David is still the best goalkeeper in the Dutch league’

A RETURN to Ireland is on the cards for David Harte, but the Ballinspittle hockey star will continue to line out for SVKampong Hockey in The Netherlands next season. The two-time world goalkeeper of the year (2015 and ’16) has signed a contract extension with Kampong, which will keep him at the club for a 13th season. ‘I'm proud to remain at this beautiful club. I see myself as a product of my environment and that is Kampong,’ Harte told the club’s website.

When the former Bandon Grammar School student moved to The Netherlands in 2010 he lined out for SCHC in Bilthoven for two years before transferring to Utrecht outfit Kampong in 2012, and he has been there since. Success has followed Harte, too, as Kampong captured the Euro Hockey League in 2016 and were crowned national champions in 2018, and with this new contract he will line out in goal for them again next season.

‘In a year, maybe in two. My wife really wants to go back,’ Harte told Dutch media when asked if a return to Ireland is a possibility, but what’s certain is that he will continue to play for Kampong when the new season starts in December.

‘We are proud that David has been associated with Kampong for a longer period of time. David is still the best goalkeeper in the Dutch league and with all his experience he is of priceless value,’ beamed Roderick Weusthof, board member of Tophockey at SV Kampong Hockey. These are busy times for Harte (36) who will also line out for Ireland’s men’s hockey teams in the Olympic Games in Paris this summer; it will see him become a two-time Olympian as he previously captained the Green Machine at the 2016 Games in Rio.