Darts wonderkid Luke Littler has cast doubt on matching Phil Taylor’s legendary tally of world championships, hinting at early retirement plans before turning fifty. The young gun, who turned heads by seizing the World Darts Championship title at only 17 earlier this year, has been widely tipped to surpass Taylor’s grand total of 16 world titles amassed during a stellar career.
Yet, Littler revealed that he doesn’t foresee himself throwing arrows into his fifties, nor is he confident about equalling Taylor’s record. In fact, he’s entertaining the notion of hanging up his flights any day now.
While featuring on Huw Ware’s fresh-off-the-press Tops and Tales podcast, Littler explained: “Michael (van Gerwen) said this in a different interview – once the fire goes out your belly, there’s just no point in playing. So if I say I’m going to continue playing darts for 30 years, well I could wake up tomorrow morning, the fire’s gone out of my belly, and I wanna retire.”
He continued to outline his ambitions within the sport: “I probably won’t be playing at 50. It’s just the way the sport’s going. It’s just growing, growing and growing. But yeah, obviously the one thing I do want to do, and I’ve said it numerous times, is win one of every major at least once.”
Littler went on to list his achievements and targets, saying, “Get them on the bucket list. Obviously, I’ve won a Pro Tour, a Euro Tour, the Premier League. I’ve won the biggest one, the World Championship. I’ve won the World Series and the Grand Slam. So there’s not much left.”, reports the Mirror.
Young darting talent Luke Littler has soared to the top of the darts world with a stunning 7-3 victory over Michael van Gerwen in the world championship final, although he later fell to the Dutchman in their Premier League Darts encounter earlier this month. Now at 18 years old, Littler has faced significant backlash after being chastised by Van Gerwen for tardiness at a Belfast press conference, where he was reminded “he needs to learn”.
Not one to shy away from his critics, Littler countered the mockery he received following a third-round defeat to Joe Cullen at the Players Championship One. Responding to the jests on social media, he posted: ‘Still earned a few quid today while these are sat at home charging their phones waiting for me to lose.
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