Luke Littler became the youngest world darts champion at the age of 17 at the start of the year, but he has now admitted that he could retire at any moment
Luke Littler has cast doubt on matching Phil Taylor’s world championship record, revealing he doesn’t plan to play into his fifties.
The young darts prodigy, who clinched the World Darts Championship title at just 17 earlier this year, has quickly become a household name in the sport.
While many enthusiasts and experts have predicted he might surpass Taylor, who retired at 57 with an impressive 16 world championships under his belt, Littler isn’t so sure about his own longevity in the game. He even suggested he could “wake up and retire tomorrow”.
During his chat on Huw Ware’s new Tops and Tales podcast, he expressed: “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.
“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.
“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.
Littler rocketed to the top of the game, clinching victory over Van Gerwen with a striking 7-3 win in the world championship final, only to be toppled by the Dutch ace in the Premier League Darts opener earlier this month.
Littler has been on the receiving end of some serious stick after being chided by his opponent for tardiness at a press briefing ahead of their showdown in Belfast, earning a stern “he needs to learn” lecture from Van Gerwen.
But Littler wasn’t about to take flak lying down, as he snapped back at fans ribbing him over his third-round exit from the Players Championship One at the hands of Joe Cullen, who claimed a tidy 6-3 victory.
Defiantly brushing off his critics, Littler zipped to social media to say: “Still earned a few quid today while these are sat at home charging their phones waiting for me to lose.”