DARTS ACE CONFRONTS MVG OVER CAREER SLUMP

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN knew his darts career was slipping but admitted he “wasn’t ready” to fix it.

‘Mighty Mike’ has started the year in stellar fashion, winning the Bahrain Masters and reaching the final of the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters.

But the Dutchman endured a difficult 2025 campaign which saw him divorce his long-term wife and drop out of the world’s top three for the first time since 2012.

Former pro and close friend Vincent van der Voort confronted MVG in front of others at the World Championship and made it clear he was worried about the direction his career was heading.

He told the Darts Draait Door Podcast: “I clearly explained everything I think is going wrong.

“And it wasn’t just between him and me. There were several people there. I simply said: ‘I’m worried about you, about what you’ve been doing in recent years.’”

According to Van der Voort, Van Gerwen did not push back and admitted he already knew something was wrong but could not address it at the time.

He added: “He said: I knew you had a point, but I wasn’t ready. Because of everything going on privately. Because of everything happening in my life.

“His children, his private life, everything. He used this period to do all sorts of things, but not to put his priorities on darts.

“He said: I knew it was going wrong, but I couldn’t turn it around. And now I know what went wrong. And now we’re heading in the right direction.

“It just went wrong in recent years because of his situation at home. He simply couldn’t get it done and then you start pushing back against it.

“He just couldn’t summon it. That’s not strange either, because he’s been at the top of the world for twenty years. I hope the tide has turned now.”

Van Gerwen returns to action at the Winmau World Masters on the 29th of January in Milton Keynes.

Image by Taylor Lanning.