Fiona Morgenstern (29) was the Amsterdam player who shed the most tears Sunday afternoon. Of course there was the pain after the second defeat against Den Bosch (3-0), but the sadness was mainly in the fact that she just played her last game ever for Amsterdam. The striker is leaving for Hurley.
‘It’s just finished with Amsterdam now. Done with the very good friends with whom I am on the field. That’s where my emotion comes from.’
Once her tears have dried and she has been hugged extensively by her parents, boyfriend and friends, Morgenstern only wants to start an interview. One she doesn’t actually feel much like doing. After all, she would have liked to end her last game in the Amsterdam tenure so much differently. To extend her season by at least a week. But that was not in the cards for the fast striker with Brabant roots.
For as hopeful as the outward game in Amsterdam was against Den Bosch (2-3 loss), things went so hard at the Oosterplas. Of course it was in the back of my mind today that it could be over. You don’t have that feeling during the game, but of course it comes at the end,’ Morgenstern said. ‘We just should have scored more during the first game,’ her simple conclusion echoes. ‘We believed in it for a long time and were combative. But it became an increasingly difficult story.’
Fiona Morgenstern cries out in the arms of Anne Veenendaal. Photo: Willem Vernes
Her gigantic move from Oranje-Rood to Amsterdam
Her adventure with Amsterdam is over after three seasons. In the summer of 2022 Morgenstern turned her whole life around. She left her familiar Oranje-Rood, for which she played for ten years, and moved from her hometown of Eindhoven to the capital. A giant step in her career, while in the meantime she made her debut in the Dutch national team. Amsterdam brought in an international, with eight caps and two goals in the Dutch team.
In her first year with Amsterdam, she immediately became national champion. The contrast with a season earlier was great, because twelve months earlier she relegated with Oranje-Rood to the Promotion League, the league she never played in because of her switch. Her first prize with Amsterdam was fantastic and for her almost as beautiful as the direct return to the big league of her team from Eindhoven.
‘I enjoyed my time here immensely. I won the EHL, became national champion and really developed myself as a field hockey player and as a person,’ she says. ‘I’m going to miss my teammates. With Freeke Moes, for example, I already played together at Oranje-Rood. I am very close with Floor de Haan and Ilse Kappelle. They really are my friends, also off the field. So I’m sure that will stay that way. Even if you are no longer together in the team.
Photo: Willem Vernes
The Amsterdam board cut the knot
Morgenstern is one of the key players in the rebuilding of Amsterdam. Where in recent weeks five youngsters were recruited and the same number of regulars from the past made way. Morgenstern is leaving for Hurley, its neighbor in the Amsterdamse Bos. ‘I started thinking about what I wanted during the winter. I wasn’t the only one. There were more thinking about their future. There were some doubts. I knew changes were coming. I’m also 29, what do I still want? How long do I still want to play field hockey?” she says.
In the winter she sat down with Amsterdam’s board. ‘They then made the choice not to extend my contract,’ Morgenstern says. ‘I found it very difficult in the beginning. Had a really hard time with it. It was unclear then what I was going to do. Where I was going to go. Or that it would suddenly be over. But it really didn’t feel finished yet.’
Morgenstern started looking for a new club. A place that would definitely give her two more years of energy. Although several clubs were interested, the puzzle had to be right. After all, she considered her working life as an orthopedagist at a mental health institution at least as important as her beloved game. A field hockey club in the Amsterdam area, where she lives and works, was therefore important.
The hugs of her family. Photo: Willem Vernes
‘I’m going full steam ahead’
‘Hurley fits very nicely with what I’m looking for now,’ she says. But definitely don’t see it as winding down, because she says that’s definitely not the case. ‘I still love the game way too much. It felt far from finished. I’m doing well and I’m fit. I’m going full steam ahead, but with Hurley. That club has a nice ambition. Full attack the fourth spot.’
Morgenstern leaves, just like her friend Joren Romijn, who will defend the Amsterdam goal in the final of the playoffs next week. ‘It is actually quite coincidental that we are both leaving. For me it’s good this way. I stand behind the choice. It was difficult for a while, but I really threw off the shyness in the second half of the season,’ she says. She proved that with eleven goals this season, which earned her ninth place in the top scorers’ classification. At Amsterdam, only Agustina Gorzelany (18 goals) made more.
She couldn’t score during her last play-offs, but afterwards she received all the love that softens a goodbye. Kind words, flowers and appreciation. And finally a hug from Romijn. We knew each other from the past, but our love blossomed again in Amsterdam. We found each other again here.’
by Hockey.nl
