"The best teenager of all time" inspires the World Darts Championship

After his first game at the World Darts Championship, 16-year-old Luke Littler is immediately proclaimed a title contender. Even the best darts player of all time says that Littler could become one of the best players of all time. Who is the super talent?

Fans, experts and players will probably remember this evening at the World Darts Championship for a long time to come. Not necessarily just because Peter Wright, the 2020 and 2022 world champion, was badly disgraced and had to return home from the World Darts Championship after losing 3-0 to Jim Williams. But also, or above all, because a new star may have been born this Wednesday evening at London's Alexandra Palace. Just 16-year-old Luke Littler was allowed to play with the big boys for the first time. And he immediately thrashed his experienced opponent.

Former amateur world champion Christian Kist from the Netherlands would probably have beaten many opponents in the first round of this world championship with his thoroughly passable performance. Against Luke Littler, however, an average of 90 points per shot was only enough for a paltry two legs. Kist went down 0:3 in the sets (0:3, 1:3, 1:3) against the English super talent.

On the sixth day of the tournament, Littler outshone everything the World Darts Championship has seen so far this year: In the end, the statistics showed an incredible 106 points on average for him. Littler pulverized the previous records of this tournament: 100 points by Ryan Joyce in last night's first match and 100 points by defending champion Michael Smith in his opening match a week ago.

Luke "The Nuke" Littler was unleashed on the World Darts Championship on December 20, 2023. "This is a 'Lionel Messi makes his first game for Barca' moment," wrote Dazn commentator Adrian Geiler on X.

"It was an incredible experience. My training went well, but I didn't expect to bring this level to the stage," said Littler, speaking of his biggest career highlight to date.

At 14 at the men's amateur world championships

That many more highlights are yet to come is not a far-fetched theory. Littler threw his first darts on the dartboard back in 2008, just 18 months after his birth. At the age of eight, he joined the St. Helens Youth Academy. This is the most successful talent factory in British darts. Top players such as Dave Chisnall and Stephen Bunting were once nurtured here. The perfect environment to refine talent.

At the age of 14 (!), the youngster from near Liverpool qualified for the WDF Amateur World Championship, but not for the youth competition, but for the men's competition. However, because the age limit for the professional darts organization PDC is 16, Littler had to wait until the beginning of this year for his debut in a PDC tournament.

Even more annoying for him was that the qualifiers for the professional tour were held two weeks before his 16th birthday in January. He was thus denied the chance to play regularly against the top players this year. Instead, Littler competed in tournaments on the junior tour, won a total of five events and even won the Junior World Championship title for players under 23 at the end of November.

"The Power" is overwhelmed

Even Phil Taylor, the most successful player of all time with 16 World Championship titles, is overwhelmed by the quality of the 16-year-old. "He's the best teenager I've ever seen in my life. I expect him to be one of the best players of all time," predicted "The Power" before the start of the World Cup.

But even Littler has no guarantee of success. The conditions are ideal, but Taylor also knows that there have been a few super talents who didn't turn out to be anything. "At his age, you naturally want to go out and have fun. But then you have to stay at home and work hard."

Taylor himself will be keeping an eye on the 16-year-old, as the darts legend has already made personal contact with Littler and is on hand to give him advice.

Draw leaves Littler dreaming

So far, however, Littler seems to be focusing solely on darts. How he deals with the fuss surrounding him will become clear this evening. He will then face world number 20 Andrew Gilding (20:15, Sport1/Dazn) in the duel for a place in the third round. The 16-year-old is the favorite against the UK Open winner after his mega opening match. And because two seeded players in his section of the draw, James Wade and Peter Wright, have already bowed out, even reaching the quarter-finals is not an unrealistic goal.

Wayne Mardle, TV pundit on British television, can even imagine an even bigger run. Even the world championship title is not inconceivable. "You have just experienced something extraordinary. Luke Littler is perhaps the greatest natural talent I've ever seen," wrote Mardle immediately after Littler's victory at X. On Sky Sports, Mardle had already predicted in the preliminary coverage: "This kid is the closest thing to Michael van Gerwen."

The Dutch superstar is aiming for his fourth World Championship title this year. Wayne Mardle is convinced that Luke Littler will soon be one of van Gerwen's title rivals.