Luke Littler is the King of Darts at just 17 years of age.
The teenage superstar smashed Michael van Gerwen to win the Paddy Power World Championship at Ally Pally. In beating the Dutchman 7-3, Littler also became the youngster-ever winner of the PDC title. His incredible rise in the game started at the Ally Pally 12 months ago when, as a relatively-unknown boy going into the tournament, he emerged from it as a man and new sporting superstar having made the Final before losing to Luke Humphries.
Since then, he had amassed 10 PDC titles and won over £1 million in prize-money and he added another £500,000 to the pit as, this time around the biggest match in the game, he made absolutely no mistake and swept to the Sid Waddell Trophy. Littler had the weight of history and expectation on his shoulders going into the showpiece clash, but it didn’t matter a jot.
The Warrington wonderkid sauntered into a 4-0 lead to leave the Dutchman dazed. Van Gerwen was hunting a fourth crown, but, despite some fight and a rally to stave off the inevitable, he couldn’t manage to register four sets as he lost his third-successive World Final. Littler stormed over the line to start joyous celebrations as he wrote himself into the sport’s history books and elevated his incredible status yet further.
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