- News release
Belén van den Broek is the Hoofdklasse’s penalty stroke specialist
Just six days to go until the start of the Staatsloterij Hoofdklasse. Every day, we’re counting down to the start of the season with a special fact. Today, we’re focusing on HDM’s penalty stroke specialist, Belén van den Broek.
Van den Broek scored six goals from penalty strokes for HDM last season. No other player scored as many. Imke Verstraeten of Amsterdam came second with five successful penalty strokes.
In total, Van den Broek scored seven times during the previous league campaign. In addition to her six penalty strokes, she scored one goal from a penalty corner. This meant that almost 86 per cent of her goals came from the spot. The season before, she had even scored all five of her league goals from penalty strokes. Over the last two seasons, her tally therefore stands at eleven goals from the penalty stroke spot.
Most successful penalty strokes in the 2025–2026 season
- Belén van den Broek ( HDM) — 6
- Imke Verstraeten ( Amsterdam) — 5
- Noor van den Nieuwenhof ( Kampong) — 3
- Julie van Dam ( HGC) — 2
- Frédérique Matla (Den Bosch) — 2
- Bobbi Dijk ( Rotterdam) — 2
- Madelief de Beer ( Oranje-Rood) — 2
Her tally of six is also remarkable from a historical perspective. Since Maartje Paumen scored eight penalty strokes for Den Bosch in the 2014–2015 season, no other player has scored more than six in a single regular league season. Ginella Zerbo scored six for SCHC in 2017–2018, and Frédérique Matla equalled that tally for Den Bosch in 2021–2022.
The record in the available data dating back to 1981–1982 therefore remains in Paumen’s hands with eight penalty goals. Within HDM, Van den Broek shares the best single-season performance with Monique Broere, who also scored six times from the penalty spot in 1982–1983.
