She was called La Maga (The Magician). Even the Deigo Maradona of hockey after the legendary footballer, her compatriot Argentinean.
Luciana Aymar’s (3rd from right in the pic above) pace, dribbling skills and cracking finishing brings her the superlative of “best female hockey player of all time.”

Another FIH Player of the Year award for Luciana.                    

That tag is underlined by a record nine FIH Player of the Year awards that have come her way.
Born on August 10, 1977, Aymar played 376 international matches in which she scored 162 goals.
Her exploits helped Argentina win the 2002 and 2010 World Cups in Perth and Rosario respectively.
Her showcase also has two Olympic silver medals won at Sydney 2000 and London 2012.
Aymar, made her senior international debut in 1998 and retired in 2014. She played for a host of clubs in Argentina, Germany and Spain.
After her early days at Club Atletico Fisherton and Jockey Club de Rosario, she turned out for Rott Weiss Koln in the German league in 1998, Real Club de Polo a year later before returning to Argentina to play for Quilmes from 2000-2007 and GEBA from 2008-2011.

Pic: (l-r): Angie Skirving, Tibor Weissenorn, Luciana Ayamar and Florian Kunz, all FIH Award winners 2001, presented at Concorde Hotel, Kuala Lumpur during the rest day of 2002 World Cup.

PHOTOS: K.Arumugam