Terrance Pieters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 14 December 1996 | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Kampong | ||
| National team | |||
| Years | Team | Caps | Goals |
| – | Netherlands | ||
Terrance Pieters (born 14 December 1996) is a Dutch professional field hockey player who plays as a forward for the Netherlands at international level and also plays as a forward for Kampong.[1][2][3] He is the first person of colour to play for the Netherlands men's national field hockey team.[4][5]
He was born to a Surinamese mother and to Dutch father of Indonesian origin. His elder sister Melissa Pieters is also a field hockey player. Both he and his elder sister grew and raised up in Almere which is a multicultural city.[6] During his childhood days, just like fellow young boys of colour, he also dreamed of pursuing his interest in the sport of football with even aiming to play for world renowned clubs like Manchester United and Barcelona. He even idolised former Ivorian veteran footballer Didier Drogba and had since worn the No 11 jersey as a sign of respect to him.[5] However, he decided to give up his ambition of becoming a footballer after realising the fact that it would be easier for his parents to send both him and his sister to the same hockey club. He pursued field hockey at the age of six and he changed his mindset from football to hockey mainly due to the influence of his sister. His cousin Marlon Landburg is also a field hockey player.[5]
He openly spoke out against the racism for the first time in 2020 sharing his own experiences in wake of aftermath the brutal murder of African-American man George Floyd.[7] He revealed the bitter experience of having confronted racism and discrimination as a person of colour in a Dutch national paper de Volkskrant, where he points out that derogatory remarks such as monkey and Zwarte Piet were often directed at him especially at primary school where he studied.[8][5][9]
