Gian van Veen happy to prove doubters wrong after beating Luke Humphries to win European Championship title
Dutchman Gian van Veen defeated world No 1 Luke Humphries to take his first senior major trophy; he hopes win will put him in contention for a place in the Premier League next year now that he is ranked seventh in the world
Monday 27 October 2025 13:51, UK
Gian van Veen has hit back at his critics after beating Luke Humphries 11-10 in a dramatic European Championship final to win the first major trophy of his career at the age of 23.
The Dutchman clinched victory over the world No 1 with a 100 checkout in an exhilarating final in which he averaged 101 and hit four ton-plus checkouts in total.
But the new European champion has had to push past external critique and pressure, especially from social media, to win his maiden major title.
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"Everyone said 'you're due your first title on stage'," said Van Veen, who had lost to Nathan Aspinall in the previous week's German Darts Championship semi-finals after leading 4-0 at one stage.
"Last weekend against Aspinall really hurts because even though everyone says they don't look at social media, we do.
"Especially me, I see it and everyone said, 'Yeah, you know, he's a fantastic player, but he bottled it once again'.
"But thankfully I got it over the line this weekend because if I would have lost this final, it would really hurt and it was always going to be tough to get to another final, maybe even get the first title.
"So many people talked about it [making the Premier League] before this weekend and there I was, number 15 and everyone said, 'he's done nothing yet, he can challenge Luke (Littler) and Luke (Humphries) and Michael (van Gerwen), but he's not won a title'.
"Well, I have now."
The showdown between the senior world champion and world youth champion seemed to be going Humphries' way in the early stages.
The 30-year-old Briton went 3-0 up while the Dutchman tried to find his rhythm after suffering a small cut to his right thumb earlier that day and having difficulty stopping the bleeding.
But Van Veen quickly caught up and took an 8-6 lead only for Humphries to fight back and make it 10-10 with both players missing match darts before Van Veen finally prevailed.
Despite being disappointed by the result, Humphries congratulated his opponent and gave some kind words of encouragement.
"He's phenomenal, that's why he's the world No 1, he can take defeat so well," van Veen said.
"I didn't hear much of his interview after the final, but I heard he was devastated and he should be, you know, he missed the match dart. If I would have lost, I would be devastated.
"But to see how he hugged me, he said to me, 'deserved champion, you're phenomenal'.
"That's why he's the world No 1. He's such a such a kind guy and he deserves all the praise that he gets."
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