Van Barneveld's long-cherished dream comes true with the establishment of the TOTO Dart Kings team

The crème de la crème of Dutch darts is now united in one team. Top darts players Michael van Gerwen, Raymond van Barneveld, Dirk van Duijvenbode, Danny Noppert and Vincent van der Voort will be part of TOTO Dart Kings for the next three years.

With the formation of the TOTO Dart Kings team, a long-cherished dream has come true for Van Barneveld. The five-time world champion has never concealed his desire to be part of a dart team.

“To be part of this team is a dream, really great'', says Barney. ''Especially with a fantastic sponsor like TOTO, which is what you've always wanted. I call it a Triple-A sponsor, which of course is very well known in the Netherlands. You want to be seen with that. If companies like that also step into darts, then that says enough about how the sport has developed in recent years.

Van Barneveld adds: ''Darts is still watched enough and there is still much written about. It still appears in the AD and De Telegraaf and eventually TOTO understood that. It's come to a good thing and let's hope it will be a very cool and beautiful three-year cooperation.

The Dutch darts pioneer then explains the added value of operating as a team in an individual sport like darts. ''You can still learn from each other, of course. Of course I have put the sport on the map here, but Michael and Vincent have also done so in a certain way, other things that maybe I have not heard of. Now that you are in one team, you can learn from each other's strengths and work together on less strong points. I think that should be discussed as a team. You have to be able to show to the outside world that you are putting yourself out there for a Triple-A sponsor. That has to be done with as much consultation as possible and in the end it has to come out good and professional.

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The 55-year-old from The Hague made his comeback on the darts circuit in 2021, after having stopped for a year. In his comeback year, Van Barneveld drew attention to himself by winning a ranking title, his first ranking title since 2013.

Besides the UK Open, for which he was automatically qualified as a PDC Tour Card holder, Van Barneveld qualified for three other TV tournaments, including the World Darts Championship. In the meantime Barney has worked his way up to 54th place in the world rankings. With TOTO as a new sponsor on the match shirt, he wants to take the next step in his comeback.

''I'd like to get back to the TV tournaments and be a regular part of that for the next three to five years. You want to make sure that people enjoy you and that you are talked about. In that way you want to show the whole darts world that it is not over with Raymond van Barneveld.''

In that respect Peter Wright is a source of inspiration for Van Barneveld. His Scottish colleague won his second world title with the PDC earlier this year at the age of 51. “That says enough. Phil Taylor also went on for longer and still took some nice titles and reached a World Championship final at his last one. I want something like that too, but I mustn't reach too high and say I have another world title in me. The whole world knows what I can do and that it's always a possibility, but it has to work out.”