“I simply said: ‘I’m worried about you, about what you’ve been doing in recent years’” – Van der Voort unveils confrontational conversation with Van Gerwen

Vincent van der Voort has revealed the details of a brutally honest conversation he had with Michael van Gerwen—one that laid bare the three-time world champion’s struggles and sparked a potentially defining moment in MVG’s career.

The close friends and Dutch compatriots sat down during the World Championship period for what van der Voort describes as a confrontational but necessary intervention. And judging by Van Gerwen’s subsequent tournament win in Bahrain, the message may finally be getting through.

The Intervention

Speaking on the Darts Draait Door podcast, Vincent van der Voort didn’t sugarcoat what happened when he finally confronted his longtime friend about the decline everyone in darts could see happening.

“I clearly explained everything I think is going wrong,” Van der Voort revealed. “And it wasn’t just between him and me. There were several people there. I simply said: ‘I’m worried about you, about what you’ve been doing in recent years.’”

It’s the kind of conversation that most friends avoid—the difficult, uncomfortable truth-telling that risks damaging a relationship but might be the only thing that can save someone from themselves.

For Van Gerwen, a player who has dominated darts for over a decade and won virtually everything there is to win, hearing that a trusted friend and fellow professional is worried about him must have stung.

But according to Van der Voort, the timing was finally right for Van Gerwen to actually listen.

“I Wasn’t Ready”

The most revealing part of Van der Voort’s account is Van Gerwen’s response—and his admission that he’d known for a long time that things were going wrong.

“He said: I knew you had a point, but I wasn’t ready,” Van der Voort recalled. “Because of everything going on privately. Because of everything happening in my life.”

This is the first time Van Gerwen has acknowledged, through Van der Voort’s retelling, that he was aware of his decline but felt powerless to stop it.

His priorities, as Van der Voort explains, simply weren’t on darts.

“His children, his private life, everything,” Van der Voort continued. “He used this period to do all sorts of things, but not to put his priorities on darts.”

For a player who has been at the absolute pinnacle of the sport for two decades, that’s a stunning admission. Michael van Gerwen—Mighty Mike, the Green Machine, the player who once averaged over 100 in his sleep—consciously chose to let his darts career take a backseat.

The question is: why now? What changed?

The Realization

According to Van der Voort, something finally clicked for Van Gerwen. The realization that his career was slipping away became impossible to ignore.

“He said: I knew it was going wrong, but I couldn’t turn it around,” Van der Voort explained. “And now I know what went wrong. And now we’re heading in the right direction.”

This is the critical pivot point. Van Gerwen has apparently moved from knowing there’s a problem to understanding what caused it—and committing to fixing it.

“According to Van der Voort, they are back on the same page. ‘It just went wrong in recent years because of his situation at home. He simply couldn’t get it done and then you start pushing back against it. He just couldn’t summon it.’”

Van der Voort’s empathy is notable here. He’s not just criticizing; he’s explaining. The separation from his wife Daphne, the disruption to family life, the emotional toll—these aren’t excuses, but they are reasons.

“That’s not strange either, because he’s been at the top of the world for twenty years,” Van der Voort added. “I hope the tide has turned now.”

The Context: A Difficult Year

To understand the significance of this conversation, you need to understand just how far Michael van Gerwen has fallen from his previous heights.

The 2025 season was, by Van Gerwen’s standards, catastrophic:

• No major TV ranking titles (his first major win since 2022 came at the World Series Finals in September 2025, a non-ranking event)
• Failed to qualify for Players Championship Finals for the first time—an event he’s won six times
• Ranked 36th on the one-year PDC ProTour rankings
• Knocked out in the fourth round of the 2026 World Championship by Gary Anderson—missing the quarter-finals for the first time since 2016 (excluding the COVID year)
• Currently 21st on the Order of Merit—a position that means he’ll be defending huge amounts of prize money in 2026

Van der Voort has been warning about this trajectory for months. Back in October 2025, he said bluntly: “It suits his year—it’s been a year of nothing. Especially on the Pro Tour. He played a lot, but didn’t perform.”

The separation from his wife in May 2025 clearly took a massive toll. Van der Voort noted at the time: “You can tell he puts on a brave face in public, but behind that there’s emptiness. It’s all hitting him.”

He also spoke about Van Gerwen’s home situation: “The dogs are gone—it’s quiet and empty at home. I understand that he wants to go out for dinner, to get away. That might make more sense than sitting on the couch on a Saturday night thinking too much. I get it, but I’m worried about his career.”

This paints a picture of someone who wasn’t just underperforming on the oche—he was struggling in life.

The Bahrain Breakthrough

If Van der Voort’s intervention was the spark, then Van Gerwen’s victory at the Bahrain Darts Masters in January 2026 was the first sign of ignition.

Van Gerwen won the tournament, beating Dutch number one Gian van Veen 8-6 in the final. It wasn’t dominant—Van Veen fought back and actually finished stronger—but Van Gerwen held his nerve when it mattered.

“Gian was genuinely playing to win,” Van der Voort noted on the podcast. “It was his first World Series appearance outside the Netherlands. And Van Gerwen has something to prove this year, so he’s clearly working towards top form. Both of them were really there to perform.”

The victory feels symbolic. Van Veen is currently the Dutch number one on paper, and Van Gerwen needed to prove he could still beat him when it counted.

“The media mention that a lot,” said podcast host Damian Vlottes. “So it’s important for Michael to just beat him a few times.”

Van Gerwen did exactly that. A crucial 103 checkout helped seal the deal when the match was slipping away.

“Gian was better at the end,” Van der Voort admitted. “But he was already 6-2 down. And Michael didn’t let that momentum flip.”

It’s the kind of mental strength that’s been missing from Van Gerwen’s game in 2025. The ability to close out matches even when not playing his best—that’s vintage MVG.

But Van der Voort is cautious about declaring a full recovery.

“You can see he’s not there yet,” he said candidly. “There’s still a lot of work to do. But this is a great boost heading into the new season.”

What’s Changed?

So what’s actually different now compared to six months ago, when Van Gerwen was missing the Players Championship Finals and looking lost?

According to Van der Voort’s account, it’s Van Gerwen’s mindset. He’s finally ready to prioritize darts again.

The conversation Van der Voort describes wasn’t just about pointing out what was wrong—it was about making Van Gerwen acknowledge that he knew it too, and getting him to commit to fixing it.

“He said: I knew you had a point, but I wasn’t ready.”

That’s the key phrase. Van Gerwen always knew what needed to change. He just wasn’t in the right headspace to do it.

The personal situation at home—the separation, the upheaval, the emotional chaos—meant that darts simply couldn’t be his main focus, no matter how much people criticized him for it.

“He simply couldn’t get it done and then you start pushing back against it. He just couldn’t summon it,” Van der Voort explained.

But now? Now he’s apparently ready. The worst of the personal turmoil may be behind him. The conversation with Van der Voort and others helped crystallize what needed to happen. And the Bahrain win showed he still has the ability to perform under pressure.

The Warnings Van der Voort Has Been Giving

Vincent van der Voort hasn’t just appeared with this intervention out of nowhere. He’s been publicly warning about Van Gerwen’s trajectory for months, serving as both friend and analyst.

Back in August 2025, Van der Voort was blunt: “There is no athlete who becomes the best in the world without training. If he wants to keep connection with the top, a lot really has to happen.”

He specifically called out Van Gerwen’s lack of structured practice: “He used to get a 105 average in his sleep. Now he has to work really hard for that. And he simply doesn’t do that enough.”

In October 2025, Van der Voort expressed direct concern: “I’m worried about his career.” He noted that Van Gerwen was “really struggling with himself” and that while he understood the need to get out of an empty house, the cost was showing on the oche.

After Van Gerwen’s World Championship exit in January 2026, Van der Voort’s assessment was brutal: “Right now he’s not playing like the world number three.”

He warned about the future: “If you have another year like this, you can simply drop out of the top sixteen. That sounds bizarre, but it’s very possible.”

And he outlined the fundamental problem: “You can’t do little for almost a year and then expect to get away with it on this stage. At this level that’s no longer enough.”

These weren’t one-off comments—they were a sustained campaign from a friend who could see the crash coming and was desperately trying to prevent it.

Why Van der Voort’s Voice Matters

Vincent van der Voort isn’t just some pundit throwing stones from the commentary box. He’s one of Van Gerwen’s closest friends in darts.

The two are compatriots who have traveled the circuit together for years. Van der Voort has been there through Van Gerwen’s greatest triumphs and has watched the recent decline up close.

Crucially, Van der Voort also understands the sport at the highest level. He reached two World Championship quarter-finals and won multiple ProTour events during his career. He knows what it takes to compete at that level—and what happens when you stop doing the work.

When Van der Voort says “I told him: I’m worried about you,” it carries weight precisely because he’s not a hater, not jealous, not trying to bring Van Gerwen down. He’s a friend who wants to see him succeed again.

The fact that Van der Voort staged this intervention with “several people there“—not just a private one-on-one—shows how serious they were about getting through to him.

This wasn’t a casual chat over beers. This was an intervention.

The Road Ahead

Michael van Gerwen turns 36 in April 2026. By darts standards, that’s not old—Phil Taylor won multiple world titles in his 40s and 50s, and Gary Anderson won his last world championship at 49.

But Van Gerwen doesn’t have infinite time to turn things around.

He’s currently 21st on the Order of Merit and has massive amounts of prize money to defend from previous years. His 2025 World Championship final appearance (£250,000 in prize money) drops off at the start of 2027. His 2024 World Matchplay final run also disappears from the rankings.

Van der Voort put it starkly: “If you have another year like this, you can simply drop out of the top sixteen.”

Dropping out of the top 16 would mean missing automatic qualification for major events. It would mean playing in earlier rounds. It would mean facing the new generation—Luke Littler, Luke Humphries, Gian van Veen—when they’re fresh rather than in finals.

The window is closing.

But the Bahrain win suggests Van Gerwen might finally be ready to fight back. He followed it up with a run to the Saudi Arabia Darts Masters final, where he lost 8-5 to Littler but showed consistent form across the tournament.

“The victory feels like a first step in the right direction, not a finish line,” Van der Voort concluded. “But this is a great boost heading into the new season.”

The Competition Isn’t Waiting

While Van Gerwen has been dealing with personal turmoil and trying to rediscover his form, the rest of the darting world has moved on.

Luke Littler is now 19 years old, world number one, and has already won two World Championships. He’s the sport’s biggest star and shows no signs of slowing down.

Luke Humphries is world number two and won the 2024 and 2025 World Championships before Littler’s recent dominance. He’s 30 years old and in his prime.

Gian van Veen is 24 and rising fast. He’s already beaten Van Gerwen in major finals and is now officially the Dutch number one.

Van der Voort made this point clearly: “You see in those young guys that they are working every day, hungry. Michael relies too much on his talent and experience. But that alone won’t save you anymore.”

Talent and experience can only take you so far when the competition is training harder, playing more, and hungry for what you used to have.

Van Gerwen can still compete—his natural ability is undeniable. But the days of showing up and dominating purely on talent are over.

He needs to work for it now. And according to Van der Voort’s account, he’s finally ready to do that.

The Verdict

Vincent van der Voort’s revelation about his confrontational conversation with Michael van Gerwen is significant for several reasons.

First, it confirms what many suspected: Van Gerwen was aware of his decline but couldn’t address it while dealing with major personal issues. The separation from his wife, the upheaval at home, the emotional toll—these weren’t excuses, but genuine obstacles to focusing on darts.

Second, it shows that Van Gerwen has finally acknowledged the problem and committed to fixing it. “Now I know what went wrong. And now we’re heading in the right direction” isn’t just empty talk—it’s backed up by his recent tournament wins.

Third, it demonstrates the value of having honest friends who will tell you difficult truths. Van der Voort could have stayed quiet, avoided the confrontation, and watched his friend’s career continue to decline. Instead, he staged an intervention and said what needed to be said.

“I simply said: ‘I’m worried about you, about what you’ve been doing in recent years.’”

That’s the line that could define this entire period of Van Gerwen’s career. A friend worried enough to speak up. A champion humble enough to listen.

Whether it’s enough to restore Van Gerwen to his former dominance remains to be seen. The competition is fiercer than ever, and the new generation isn’t going to hand him anything.

But for the first time in a long time, there’s genuine hope that Michael van Gerwen might be on his way back.

And it all started with a difficult conversation that a true friend was brave enough to have.

The Bottom Line: Vincent van der Voort revealed he had a confrontational conversation with Michael van Gerwen during the World Championship period, telling him “I’m worried about you, about what you’ve been doing in recent years.” Van Gerwen admitted he knew things were wrong but “wasn’t ready” to address them due to personal issues. He now says he understands what went wrong and is heading in the right direction, with recent tournament wins in Bahrain and a final appearance in Saudi Arabia suggesting the message may finally be getting through. Van der Voort hopes “the tide has turned” but warns there’s still much work to do.