He is the 16-year-old who captured the nation’s hearts.
Luke Littler went into the 2024 PDC World Championship as a rank outsider, largely unknown beyond darting circles.
Three weeks later he was a household name, dismantling two former winners as he stormed to the final, breaking television records and picking up a cool £200,000 in prize money.
Since the final this – which he lost to Luke Humphries – Littler has continued to capture the public’s imagination.
He passed one million followers on Instagram. When he went to see his Manchester United side play Tottenham on Sunday, pictures of him alongside legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, external made headline news.
On Thursday world number 31 Littler will be back doing his day job, returning to our television screens in the Bahrain Darts Masters, which will be broadcast by ITVX.
There will be live text commentary of selected matches on the BBC Sport website and app.
The event features eight leading PDC players and eight ‘Asian representatives’, two of whom came through local qualifying.
Littler is joined by Humphries, former world champions Michael van Gerwen, Michael Smith, Gerwyn Price, Rob Cross and Peter Wright, and World Matchplay champion Nathan Aspinall.
The PDC players will be kept apart in Thursday’s opening round, where Littler will face Hong Kong’s Man-Lok Leung. Littler’s opponent is ranked joint-126th in the world.
The eight winners will progress to the quarter-finals, played on Friday along with the semis and final.
The champion will win £20,000 in prize money.