"By those standards 99 percent of pro darters are alcoholics" - Former WDF champion Dick van Dijk causes stir with comments

Besides Raymond van Barneveld, Michael van Gerwen, Jelle Klaasen and Christian Kist, he is one of the five Dutchmen who ever became world darts champion. Although Dick van Dijk is the least known in this list and also the only one who is no longer operating at a high level in the darts world.

Van Dijk won the 2005 WDF World Cup singles in Perth. "How much did that earn me? Nothing, but as world champion you do get invitations for demonstrations and such. So indirectly yes," Van Dijk says to AD. "It hasn't worked out for me. My manager conned me. That cost me at least 80,000 euros. Partly because of that, darts has cost me loads of money. All that traveling... If you catch a cab in England, it costs more than the plane ticket there."

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Still, Van Dijk rates his world title particularly high. "Because at the WDF, all countries are allowed to send their best four darters. That is not the case with the PDC. That is actually just a final ranking tournament," he explains. "And back then all the top players were still in the WDF huh, except Phil Taylor."

Van Dijk has struggled considerably with his health in recent years. "Currently I am in a WIA trajectory because I have long covid," he reveals. "I was a shift supervisor at a company in Waalwijk that does injection molding plastic, but I can't do that anymore. My lungs have gone from one hundred to forty percent. In addition, I also have diverticulitis. There are small holes in my intestine. That causes a lot of symptoms and it can't be fixed."

As such, Van Dijk has little tike for darts nowadays. "Well, at home I still throw occasionally. And the other day I participated in a father/son tournament with the son of a sick friend. Won, that is. But I never really fit into the darts circuit. I had very little common ground with other guys," he recalls. "Yes, with Mervyn King, who also has his own opinion. I still talk to him online sometimes. But other than that... I saw someone on TV the other day telling me when you are an alcoholic. Well, by those standards, 99 percent of pro darters are alcoholics."

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Never one to shy away from sharing his opinion, Van Dijk has been in trouble because of comments before. "I was officially reprimanded once by the Dutch Darts Association after I made a comment on Facebook about Lisa Ashton's hair," Van Dijk recalls. "That she looked so much like a certain dog. That became quite a riot. The union felt that as WDF world champion I was discrediting the sport. Then I was suddenly the world champion for them, while they never otherwise talked about that title."

Dick van Dijk takes issue with certain colleagues' behavior toward Noa-Lynn van Leuven

Van Dijk, by the way, has a hard time with the behavior of certain female darters anyway. "For years they threw against transgender Noa-Lynn van Leuven, but now that she's successful and getting attention, they don't want her on a Dutch team anymore. I do think something about that," he notes with frustration.

So Van Dijk himself no longer appears in the darts world, but he is at peace with that. "On TV there is a fixed clique, you just don't come between them. But I don't miss it, though. I have a season ticket to Feyenoord with my girlfriend and I'm interested in what's going on in the world. I am enjoying myself," he explains. "Maybe I'll do something in darts soon. After all, I've been asked to mentor talented youth. I like the idea of that. I think I can teach them something. Especially that they should not get involved with peddlers. My advice is: don't take on a manager. You can easily take care of everything yourself."

Van Dijk is a contemporary of Raymond van Barneveld's generation, but he does not predict a good 2025 PDC World Darts Championship for the 57-year-old Dutchman. "I think it will go all wrong again with Barney. I once coached that one for three months, but the glass was always half-empty. What am I saying? There wasn't even a glass with him. After a defeat, he once demolished his entire hotel room. There was no honour in that for me."

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