“I can beat anyone who is here” – Wessel Nijman plays down Premier League talk after dominant World Matchplay win

Wessel Nijman remains strikingly level-headed following his convincing victory in the opening round of the World Matchplay.

While others increasingly regard him as the Netherlands’ newest leading contender and have even begun discussing a possible Premier League place, the 26-year-old is concentrating on his next match.

His success over recent months has increased his confidence without changing the measured approach behind his rise.

“I’m just really happy,” Nijman told DartsNews.com after his dominant victory over Dave Chisnall at the Winter Gardens. “I’ve said in all the other interviews that the World Matchplay brings something different. This is the tournament I like the most out of all the tournaments, and I’m happy I’m here for three more days.”

Nijman’s performances have again placed him at the centre of considerable attention. It is reminiscent of the World Championship a few years ago, when he was also being widely discussed, although he views the situation differently now.

“I probably said the same thing then, that I didn’t care about everyone talking about me,” he explained. “That’s how I felt back then, but now it’s a bit different.”

The attention feels more justified after his rise over the past two seasons. “I know that’s just the way it is now, whereas back then I thought it was a bit unjustified. Now I know I’m one of the guys, probably one of the top eight players there. That makes it a bit different from the World Championship.”

Nijman’s ascent of the world rankings has been impressive. Multiple Players Championship titles and two European Tour victories have provisionally carried him close to the world’s top 10, despite his wait for a genuinely deep run at a televised ranking event.

“I set myself the goal of reaching the top 16 by the end of the year, and I’m really happy that I achieved it before the summer,” he said.

Although another significant landmark is now within reach, Nijman is not abandoning the approach that brought him this far. “I’d like to get into the top 10, but I wouldn’t say it was a goal. The goal was the top 16. We can change it slightly and aim for the top 10, but we’ll take it step by step. That’s how the last three years have gone and that’s how we’re continuing now.”

Having established himself on the ProTour and won twice on the European Tour, a first major televised title appears the logical next step. Nijman believes his game is already strong enough, while acknowledging that the very biggest events present a different challenge.

“Obviously, the game is there. Otherwise, you don’t win the titles I’ve won,” he said. “But it is a bit different because those titles didn’t always have Littler or Humphries in them. There have been upsets throughout the year, which makes it slightly different.”

That has not diminished his belief that he can compete with the two leading players in the world. “In the end, I know I can give those guys a great game. I wouldn’t say I’m the favourite against them, but I can give them a good game and I hope I can beat them on a stage like this.”

Nijman will face fellow Dutchman Gian van Veen in the second round. Van Veen has already suggested that his compatriot should enter the match as the favourite, an assessment Nijman only partly shares. “Based on experience, probably not. Based on form, probably yes.”

Nijman suffered a surprise defeat to Gabriel Clemens at the most recent World Championship, only to begin his remarkable sequence of title victories shortly afterwards. He never allowed that setback to become a significant mental burden.

“It was just one game. Obviously, it was the World Championship and you want to win, but if you have a game like that and don’t win, it isn’t the end of the world, is it?” he explained.

“I look at my whole career game by game. If you lose one that you probably didn’t expect to lose, there is still another one coming. In darts nowadays, you get so many chances. If you lose at this major, there’s another major coming. The next day, there might be another ProTour,” continued Nijman. “You get enough chances. You can think about a defeat for the entire month, but you just have to move on.”

That resilience is, in Nijman’s view, an increasingly important quality at the top of the modern game. “I think that’s what makes the players nowadays, isn’t it? If you keep crumbling after one defeat, you’re going to struggle because, as I said, there’s another tournament next week and another tournament after that. You cannot stay down for more than a week. You just have to move on.”

Nijman attributes much of his improvement over the past 12 months to winning titles, reaching finals and learning to maintain his level throughout demanding tournament days.

“It’s probably from winning titles, playing in finals and playing well throughout an entire day at tournaments such as the European Tours and Players Championships,” he said.

The European Tour has been particularly valuable. “Especially on the European Tour, when you have to play four matches in one day. That’s really difficult to do. You need to be fit and ready every couple of hours,” Nijman explained. “Later in the day, you might come back from one match and then the bull-up for the next is only ten minutes away. You have to get yourself ready again immediately. I think that experience is helping me now.”

Although Nijman does not consider European Tour matches identical to competing in one of the PDC’s biggest televised events, the latter stages of those tournaments have given him valuable experience.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the same, but it definitely helps me,” he said. “Playing in semi-finals and finals on the European Tour helps me to play here. I think that’s probably what I was missing one or two years ago.”

The one gap on Nijman’s increasingly impressive record is a deep run in a major televised tournament. Rather than allowing that record or other people’s expectations to become a burden, he continues to approach each match in isolation.

“I don’t really care about what other people expect from me because I know I can do it and I can beat anyone who is here,” he said. “In the end, I just want to win the next game. After that, I’ll want to win the game after that. That’s how I approach everything.”

His eight ranking titles in 2026 have inevitably prompted Premier League discussion, but Nijman believes his performances during the major-heavy second half of the season should determine whether that conversation becomes serious.

“I think it’s a bit early to be talking about putting me in something like the Premier League. The year really starts after the summer, doesn’t it?” he said. “It’s good to have a strong first half of the year, but the money is in the second half, with all the majors. I can see where the talk comes from, but I don’t think what I’ve done so far justifies putting me in something like the Premier League already.”

When presented with the possibility of ending the year as world number eight or nine and receiving an invitation, however, Nijman did not hesitate.“Yeah, obviously. One hundred per cent.”

For now, Van Veen and a place in the World Matchplay quarter-finals remain the only immediate targets.