21/10/2020

RTL7's Arjan van der Giessen not shocked at Van Barneveld's comeback: "There's nothing else Raymond can do"

The big news which came out in Dutch Darts recently was the return of Raymond van Barneveld after a short lived retirement.

RTL7's Arjan van der Giessen admitted that while for many, it was a shock move. He saw it coming and sees it as occurring due to being bored at home with nothing to do and the lack of exhibitions.

"To a lot of people it was a shock and I believe some of them are still in shock because they never expected Raymond (van Barneveld) to make his comeback so soon after he retired on the 8th February. He had a farewell party at the AFAS Live in Amsterdam, I was there as well. They can't believe he's done it," said Van der Giessen to Online Darts.

"To me honestly, it's not a shock. I expected his comeback in three months after he said he was going to retire because basically there's nothing else Raymond can do and especially when he's having no exhibitions because of the Coronavirus. He's sitting at home and he's bored."

"He got in touch with his former manager Ben de Kok and they talked about it and Ben could arrange a few sponsors for him to make his comeback so Raymond is trying to get his Tour Card at Q-School in January and he wants to play darts again."

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In his opinion, while he has the talent, he echoes the sentiments of many others who question his desire to put in the hard work and play in ProTour tournaments in Wigan and Barnsley which he has admitted previously he doesn't enjoy.

"I think that should have been it but I can understand Raymond, he said he's bored, he's motivated to play again. If you've been playing darts for over 30 years and then you quit, you miss everybody in a couple of months. Is it wise to make a comeback, I don't know. We all know he still has the talent to perform well but mentally it's a different story."

"We know Raymond doesn't like going to Wigan or Barnsley, do all the travelling, playing the tournaments over there, he got bored of it, he got sick of it. He got frustrated and now he has to do exactly that."