A sort ofThe day after the small arrow miracle happened, Fabian Schmutzler had to go to school as usual. The 16-year-old from Frankfurt booked a sensational ticket to the world of darts on the weekend, but before the World Cup Championship in Alexandra Palace in London (December 15 to January 3), his daily routine School life should continue as unobstructed as possible. “Guys, I just can’t keep up. Thank you for your congratulations. It’s incredible,” Schmutzler said on social media. The teenager won the World Cup tickets in an incredible way and has received hundreds of congratulations to date.
In the legendary “Ally Pali”, the “mythical Fab” known as Schmutzler on the scene should soon dive into a whole new world: the young man will be the second youngest player in the history of the World Cup Debut and duel from the very beginning, it is possible to win the world championship with former players, such as Englishman Adrian Lewis or Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld.
If Schmutzler wins a game, he will become the youngest player in the history of the tournament. “This is a good start. The journey will begin. Let’s see how he handles it,” said Elmar Paulke, a dart expert. For him, Schmutzler “made history” even before he gave birth to his first child in the British capital.
“Different from many other dart players”
The story last weekend is actually a bit like a fairy tale: Schmutzler, who turned 16 in October, was allowed for the first time to participate in the PDC World Association Championship in Hessian Niedernhausen. The World Cup ticket was played on the so-called Development Tour-Schmutzler got the ticket, even though he missed 6 of the 12 games because he did not meet the minimum age requirement of 16 in August.
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“I would say that this is an extraordinary talent. He is a very smart person. He is very different from many other dart players,” said René Adams, who discovered the young man two years ago, and he has since become a German news reporter. A kind of mentor of the society. Adams himself is also a dart player.
A difficult and delicate balance is now waiting for Schmutzler, his family and his environment: on the one hand, the door to a great career leading to World Cup qualification is open, on the other hand, Hessen is still very young. And: jumping from zero to one hundred, no one would have expected the performance to explode like this. “It’s developing so fast, it’s amazing,” Adams said. Schmutzler made 6,000 pounds (7,000 euros) over the weekend, and his participation in London alone brought him another huge income, which is unusual for a teenager.
In addition, his family and Adams want to coordinate peacefully and quietly, which has aroused huge attention and more and more media inquiries. Just don’t burn young people after the dream weekend, this is the motto.
Max Hope It was very similar back then. He also participated in the World Cup for the first time when he was 16 years old. The German world champions coveted by the media and fans, everyone wants a prodigy. But the hype was too much for Hope. Over the years, he brought himself back to himself, imposed a media ban on himself, and carefully chose the queries he would still answer. Hope now also congratulates Schmutzler, expressing “respect” and proving “great potential”. The recent development of the German darts team is “very outstanding”. Hope himself is 25 years old and has not become a world champion since, but is currently fighting for tickets for the 2022 World Cup.
In Schmutzler, world champions Gabriel Clemens, Martin Schindler and Florian Hempel have identified four German players to participate in the main event of the year. This was a huge success for Werner von Moltke, owner of PDC Europe. “German players in the World Cup brought a completely different degree of media attention. These appearances are always closely watched,” a dpa official said. Von Moltke called the Schmutzler coup “a little fairy tale” and added: “It struck us all like lightning, but we are very, very happy.”
