LEGEND BARNEY COULD TAKE A “STEP BACK”
17/05/2026 By Phil Lanning
LEGEND Raymond van Barneveld could be on the verge of taking a “step back” from the sport.
The five-times World Champion hit a new low in his clash against Alan Soutar at the Austrian Darts Open a week ago.
Van Barneveld, 59, lost 6-2 and delivered an out-of-character low average of just 77.79. He had never thrown this badly at a Euro Tour event ever before.
Close friend and former UK Open finalist Vincent van der Voort is concerned about his highly-decorated fellow countryman.
He told the Darts Draait Door podcast: “You keep thinking it can’t get worse, but he keeps losing all the time. I messaged him briefly on WhatsApp and you can tell he’s really struggling.”
Barney retired in 2020, leaving the sport after a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Darin Young in the World Championship. But he came back to regain his PDC Tour Card at the 2021 Q-School.
However, Van der Voort revealed that Barney is now considering taking a temporary break from the sport.
He added: “He’s thinking about taking a step back for a while, because this way it really makes no sense anymore. I really feel for him. I’ve known him for 35 years.”
Van der Voort believes the defeat to Scot Soutar in Graz was another sign of his decline.
He added: “If people told me Raymond was averaging in the 70s, I’d say: ‘No way, that can’t be’. He really shouldn’t want this for himself.
“A few years ago we would never have expected this. I always thought he had so much talent that he could still compete on autopilot. But you see that even such champions can fall through the floor.”
Image by TAYLOR LANNING.
