Curious coincidence at European Championship: Dortmund star Maxi Beier once again becomes the match-winner in Dortmund

When Europe’s top darts players are in Dortmund, Maximilian Beier seems to have a particularly sharp eye for goal. The Borussia Dortmund striker is also a passionate darts fan and once again showed last weekend that he has a knack for delivering in crucial moments—or, more precisely, an excellent finish. The 24-year-old scored the decisive goal in the 80th minute of a 1–0 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt. The curious detail: almost exactly one year earlier, Beier had also fired BVB to victory during the European Championship.

This remarkable coincidence was pointed out on X account, Overtime Takes. The Darts European Championship was held at Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle in late October in both 2025 and 2026—and on both occasions, Beier proved decisive at Signal Iduna Park, just a few minutes’ walk away. But that was not all: this year, the curious statistic led to a special meeting between football and darts stars.

A look back shows just how striking the parallels really are. The European Darts Championship was held in Dortmund from 23 to 26 October 2025. In the middle of that stretch, on 25 October, Borussia Dortmund hosted 1. FC Köln. The match looked destined to end goalless until Maximilian Beier scored a jubilant 1–0 winner in the sixth minute of stoppage time.

Exactly one year later, the story almost repeated itself in astonishing fashion. As the darts elite returned to the Westfalenhalle from 22 to 25 October 2026, BVB faced Eintracht Frankfurt in a Bundesliga top-of-the-table clash on Saturday evening.

Once again, Beier made the difference. The forward, who had started on the bench, came on in the 67th minute and curled a superb finish into the net 12 minutes later to seal a 1–0 win, complete with a darts celebration. Two Dortmund home games during the Darts European Championship, two narrow 1–0 victories—and Maximilian Beier scored in both.

For a professional footballer whose passion for darts is no secret, the timing could hardly have been better.

This year, however, the story had an extra twist. Two prominent European Darts Championship contenders, Stephen Bunting and Gian van Veen, were in the stands for the Bundesliga clash.

The two professionals made the most of their stay in Dortmund with a visit to Signal Iduna Park. Bunting, who already knows Beier personally, was even captured by Sky Sport’s cameras during the match.

When the Dortmund forward scored the decisive goal in the 80th minute, the crowd erupted—and the two darts stars were just as excited.

After the final whistle, Bunting praised Beier’s performance in a joint interview: “Obviously I've met Maxi before, a top top guy. What a goal. Took it brilliantly and we were all on the side jumping up and down,” the Englishman said.

Asked which moment in darts could compare with such a winning goal, “The Bullet” had a fitting answer. "It's a match winner so probably the 160 I hit the other day. A last minute finish to win a game and Maxi's just replicated that."

But the evening was far from over for Bunting and van Veen when the final whistle blew. Afterwards, they met up with Maximilian Beier and his Borussia Dortmund teammate Joey Veerman.

As Borussia Dortmund showed on its Instagram account, the four could not resist throwing a few darts together. The footballers and darts stars swapped their usual roles: instead of the pitch or the oche in front of thousands of spectators, they gathered around the dartboard.

Bunting and van Veen also received special mementos of their visit to the stadium: each was given a personalised BVB shirt. Their surnames were printed on the back, along with the number 180, of course.

The special link between BVB and the Darts European Championship reached its latest high point on Sunday.

After Stephen Bunting and Gian van Veen had watched the action at Signal Iduna Park on Saturday evening, Maximilian Beier took his turn in the stands a day later. The Dortmund match-winner visited the Westfalenhalle on the final day of the European Darts Championship, where he supported his friend Stephen Bunting and German hopeful Martin Schindler, among others.

That brought the story full circle. It began with a curious statistical coincidence: Beier once again scored the decisive 1–0 for Borussia Dortmund during the Darts European Championship, darts stars celebrated his goal, and the footballer then cheered on the professionals at the oche.