Quick Facts
Biography
Alexander "Sander" Baart (['sɑndər baːrt]; born 30 April 1988) is a Dutch field hockey player of Belgian descent who plays as a defender or midfielder for Belgian club Braxgata and the Dutch national team.
Club career
He started playing at the age of 6 at Royal Antwerp HC in Belgium and in his final season with them in 2007 won the Belgian national title. As of the 2007-2008 season he was playing for the Dutch club Oranje Zwart. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 he won 3 consecutive Dutch national titles with his club. And in 2015 he also won the Euro Hockey League with his club.
On a club level he also represented the Uttar Pradesh Wizards in the first three seasons of the Hockey India League as well as in 2017. In the European club season of 2017–18, he played for Real Club de Polo de Barcelona. As of the 2017–18 season, he played for Braxgata in the Belgian club competition. In January 2020 it was announced he would return to Eindhoven to play for Oranje Zwart's successor Oranje-Rood in the 2020–21 season.
International career
As a junior player, he played for the Belgian national team Boys Under 16 and won the European title with them. Later on, he switched to the Dutch national teams and won European silver and gold medals for the Dutch under-21 team and the silver medal at the Junior World Championship.
He played his first official match for the senior Dutch national men's team in 2007 against South Korea. He is the only player to be selected for the Dutch national team without ever having played in the Dutch competition prior to his debut. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, he competed for the national team in the men's tournament, winning the silver medal.
With the national team, he won a gold medal in the first Hockey World League in 2014, silver at the World Cup that same year and a gold medal in 2015 at the European Championship. He participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016 where he made the semi-final. In August 2017 he extended his European title in Amsterdam beating his other homeland Belgium in the final. In June 2019, he was selected in the Netherlands squad for the 2019 EuroHockey Championship. They won the bronze medal by defeating Germany 4–0.
Honours
International
Netherlands
- Olympic Silver Medal: 2012
- EuroHockey Championship: 2015, 2017
- Hockey World League: 2012–13
Club
Oranje Zwart
- Euro Hockey League: 2014–15
- Hoofdklasse: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16
Real Club de Polo
- Copa del Rey: 2017
