Yahoo Finance Michael van Gerwen is the perfect sportsman – he is only interested in one thing
It is overwhelmingly green inside the darts-themed bar chosen to launch this year’s PDC World Darts Championship. It is on the dartboards, the tiling beneath an imitation art deco bar and on the many logos of event sponsor Paddy Power.
Its great wheeze this year is to claim it will turn the normally-red treble 20 segment of the board green for the tournament, which starts on Friday. Michael van Gerwen does not seem impressed. “Nice PR, eh?” he says. “They love the PR.” He is a looming, bruising figure up close, leaning in with forearms plonked onto an elbow-height table. You would not wish to be competing against him for anything.
We meet at the point of the publicity cycle when we must pretend this obviously not-happening stunt will go ahead. I attempt to suspend my disbelief. Has Van Gerwen practised on the modified boards and will the colour change make any difference? “It’s not going to happen,” he says, refusing to play ball.
Around us are cartoons of Van Gerwen, did he ever imagine as an apprentice tiler in the southern Netherlands he would become the face of his sport? “It’s been a long journey, a lot has changed since I started playing, it’s all part of the big rollercoaster.” That is a fair metaphor for Van Gerwen’s recent years.
During his imperial phase, roughly 2017-2019, it seemed likely he would dominate darts for a decade like Phil Taylor. Then mortality crept in. Few can keep up when Van Gerwen reaches his mesmerising top gear but his rivals have improved. This will be the second consecutive year of Van Gerwen entering the Worlds as something other than top seed, a position he held from 2015-22. He won this year’s Premier League and the World Series of Darts, but has not triumphed at Alexandra Palace since 2019.
We speak the day after the Players Championship final and a Van Gerwen performance which mixed the sublime (a nine dart finish) with the suboptimal (leading Luke Humphries 9-5 then losing six legs in a row to lose 11-9). He says he is over defeats within a day. “You try to take the positives out of it, I had a great tournament and that’s what you need to keep in mind. That’s what you want going into the World Championship, you want to go in with a good feeling.”
This is about as revealing as Van Gerwen will get. He is not rude, just blunt and aggressively uninterested in public introspection. “Of course you need to look forward but never backwards. There’s no point, whether it’s positive or not positive, it doesn’t bring you anything. When the next tournament is around the corner, you have to make sure you are busy with that.”
‘Everyone is allowed an opinion, I don’t really care’
From this point the length of his answers can be measured in low single-digit seconds. He loves playing in front of a crowd but must, I suggest, have to block it out when he is at the oche. “What do you mean?” Well it is so noisy, it must be distracting. “I’ve got enough experience to deal with that.” How did he learn how? “Play it. Face it. My mind should only be on my game and not what the crowd does.” So he never notices the fancy dress at Alexandra Palace? “No, of course not. There’s no point concentrating on that.”
What do people get wrong about darts, what are the biggest misconceptions about it? “What can you say? Everyone is allowed to give their own opinion, I don’t really care.” Silence.
With the benefit of hindsight, some of these were silly questions, probably not worthy of the great man. We have raced through everything on my list plus several increasingly desperate improvisational detours. It has been a long 11 minutes. Persisting for our allotted 30 feels like a profound waste of his time so I wish him luck for the tournament, he thanks me, shakes my hand and is on to his next promotional duty.
I leave wondering if Van Gerwen is the perfect sportsman. Many claim to be focused only on the present and interested solely in their own performances. He seemingly lives those values. No future, no past, Van Gerwen has more important things to think about. He just will not be telling strangers about them.
The Paddy Power World Darts Championship will be held from December 15-January 3, live on Sky Sports
