“I cried my eyes out” - Dimitri van den Bergh reflects on “the lowest moment in my career" during brutal 2025

Dimitri van den Bergh recently appeared on the Tops & Tales podcast with PDC referee Huw Ware. The former World Matchplay champion looked back, among other things, on the past year, when he says he “lost himself for a bit”.

Van den Bergh hit a serious dip in 2025 and ultimately decided not to touch his darts for the final months of the year until the World Championship, hoping to start again with a clean slate.

That did not go as hoped, however, as at Alexandra Palace, he ended a disastrous year with a one-sided 3-0 defeat to Scotland’s Darren Beveridge.

When Ware asked how he looks back on 2025, Van den Bergh was clear with his answer: “Definitely a year of struggles. A year of finding your path again. A year of starting over, taking a step back to come back stronger.”

He said he lost some of his love for the sport because of what he was going through. “I’m still battling with myself and working with myself to improve. But there was a time I was working against me and instead of doing it the way I needed to do, I was like, ‘I’ve got to walk away because it’s getting too much for me.’”

He later called that decision to take a break and withdraw from a tournament the right choice. In the last months, he has worked hard again, but he emphasised that he mainly wants to see it for himself: “I need to show it to myself again. I don’t need to show the world. The world already knows, but I need to show it myself again.”

Ware referenced the moment in Rosmalen, where Van den Bergh withdrew. Van den Bergh explained how difficult that was. “I cried my eyes out.” He walked up to the PDC staff and said: “Look guys, this might be a shocker, but can you pull me out of the tournament?”

The reaction from those around him stayed with him. “They straight away was asking if I was okay, if they can do something for me, if there’s anything they could do for me that I should let them know that they’re there for me. Like I had so much support and respect and they respected my choice as well.”

And he said something you do not often hear so directly from a top athlete: “I’m not afraid. I’ve got emotions. I’m not afraid to tell him and to show him this is me, the real me. And whoever thinks that I’m soft, that’s okay. I think that I’m a man by showing my emotions.”

He needed to enjoy the sport again, rather than see it as suffering. “It was more suffering than it was enjoying. And darts should be an enjoyment.”

Van den Bergh has now slipped to 25th on the Order of Merit and is even at risk of falling out of the top 32 this year.

Was that one of the lowest points of his career? “Yeah,” he said. “The lowest moment in my career to actually walk away.” Not because he wanted to stop, but because he needed space. “That step back was not me quitting. That’s the back was me giving me the space and the time to come back stronger and make two steps forwards.”

Since returning, he says he feels better. He is living healthier, taking better care of his body and trying to think more positively. The people around him also see a difference. “Either way, the people around me, my important inner circle, they’re saying that they see a different in me, that they believe in what they see, that they believe in me, that they know that I can do it… and if they say that, I’ll be confident.”

Still, he was honest: to truly believe again, he needs something tangible. “I think I need a good win. I think I need a good game to tell myself this is why you’ve worked hard. This is why you’ve put all the effort in, all the hours in, why you sacrificed all the time.”

He sounded ambitious but also patient. “It’s going to come. It’s going to happen.” When? At the Worlds? Next year? “Doesn’t matter.”

His concrete goal is clear: “My goal is being back in that top 16.” And longer term: becoming world champion, winning majors, keeping on enjoying what he loves doing and, typically Van den Bergh: “While I’m doing it, making other people smile.”