Niklas Wellen (born 14 December 1994) is a German

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

player who plays as a forward for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club Crefelder HTC. He played a total of 213 matches for the German national team from 2013 to 2024 in which he scored 114 goals.

Club career

Wellen played for the first team of Crefelder HTC since he was 16 years old. In February 2020 he signed a two-year contract at Pinoké in the Netherlands from the 2020–21 season onwards. During the 2021–22 indoor season he scored the winning goal in the championship final against HDM as Pinoké won its first national title. He was named the best player of the Dutch indoor season. At the end of the outdoor season he returned to Crefelder HTC.

International career

He represented his country at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, where he won the bronze medal. On 28 May 2021, he was named in the squads for the 2021 EuroHockey Championship and the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. He scored four goals in the EuroHockey tournament as they won the silver medal after they lost the final to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

after a shoot-out. He was the Player of the Final Match, Best Forward Player, and the Player of the Tournament in the FIH Men's World Cup 2023 held in India. After the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

, where Germany won the silver medal, he announced his retirement from the national team.

Personal life

Wellen's wife Kim is the sister of NHL player

Leon Draisaitl Leon Tim Draisaitl (; born 27 October 1995) is a German professional ice hockey forward and alternate captain for the Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). In 2020, Draisaitl became the first German player to win the Art Ross Tro ...

. The couple have one son, Carlo born in 2023.

References

External links

* 1994 births Living people German male field hockey players Sportspeople from Krefeld Male field hockey forwards Field hockey players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Field hockey players at the 2024 Summer Olympics 2018 Men's Hockey World Cup players Olympic field hockey players for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in field hockey Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Men's Hoofdklasse Hockey players Men's Feldhockey Bundesliga players 2023 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup players Pinoké players German expatriate field hockey players Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Germany 21st-century German sportsmen {{Germany-fieldhockey-bio-stub