Moritz Fuerste harvests a record USD 142,500 in HIL, and how
When third consecutive penalty corner flopped for the German Florian Fuchs’ led Dabang Mumbai, and just less than two minutes left in the clock for the hooter, a counter attack saw Kalinga Lancers earning only second of their penalty corner. When Captain Moritz Fuerste stepped into convert — which he had already done once with the first in the second quarter itself – he was perhaps not aware he will hit another jackpot.
He had so far had 11 goals in his kitty, one behind his team mate Glenn Turner. As things would turn out, Moritz hit the centre of cage to take his personal goal tally to 12 to level with Glenn.
The booty here is the he and Glenn being joint top scorers, entailed a purse of Rs.20 Lac (USD 3200).
Otherwise, without this goal which he got less than 90 seconds before full time of the HIL final, he would have missed fifty percent of the purse earmarked for the Dhruv Batra top scorer prize money.
So, the Olympic gold medallist Moritz got an additional USD 16000.
There is also a poetic justice here.
Glenn scored only six goals but all being field goals his tally is counted as 12 whereas Moritz actually scored 10 times through PC, besides a field one obtained thro a stroke conversion.
However, Moritz’s share of joint top scorer award of USD 16000 pales into nothing against what he was sold for in the 2015 HIL Players Auction.
He was the first player to crack the USD 100,000 mark. He was purchased by the Kalinga Lancers from Ranchi Rays for a record USD 105,000.
His earning did not stop with this record prize this year.
He won Man of the Match award four times, netting in all Rs.200,000. Thrilling goal Award Twice Rs. 100,000.
His team has got winners purse of Rs. 2.50 Cr. Normally, the Franchise owners share the booty with the players and coaches, though they are not bound to do so.
If Kalinga, despite being a Govt owned Franchise unlike all other five which are private, decides to share with players then Moritz will get another USD 16,000.
It all works to one third of his annual fee.
In all this worthy’s total earning for this year HIL will be around USD 142,500.
Moritz is Olympic gold medallist, hails from Hamburg in Germany. He played first three years of HIL for Ranchi before ailing Kalinga got him in the 2015 Auction.
Moritz justified his top billing taking the team to title twice and winning now.