Belgian darts is in a rough patch, and Mike De Decker has had enough. The 30-year-old has leapt to the defence of his close friend and compatriot Dimitri Van den Bergh, who has stepped away from the sport amid a storm of social media criticism. Speaking on the podcast Darts Draait Door, De Decker slammed the treatment of Van den Bergh, insisting the backlash is wildly out of proportion.
“What Dimitri is getting on social media is beyond belief. It makes no sense at all,” De Decker said. “He carried the flag for Belgian darts. Especially over the last five years, since he won the World Matchplay in 2020.” That Blackpool triumph, where Van den Bergh beat Gary Anderson in the final to claim his first major PDC title, remains the high point of his career. But the recent spell has been particularly difficult, and De Decker is also navigating a turbulent period. Both Belgians reached the semi-finals of the World Grand Prix in 2024, but since then much has changed. While De Decker has kept playing and is slowly trying to regain his touch, Van den Bergh has chosen to step away from the game for now.
The pair have been close friends for years, but they speak less often now, partly because both have moved and now live farther apart. “I don’t hear that much from him anymore. I also try not to keep asking,” De Decker revealed. “We used to talk far more often, but since we both moved, it just doesn’t work. It’s simply too far.” They still try to meet up now and then – around the World Cup of Darts, Van den Bergh visited De Decker for a day to practice together. But De Decker is keen not to apply pressure, saying: “I don’t want to keep bringing it up with him. Dimitri knows that if he wants to say something, to get something off his chest or whatever, he can reach me. I don’t think I’m the person who should keep asking how he is and how it’s going.”
The difficulties were laid bare at the World Cup of Darts, where the Belgians teamed up again. De Decker admitted focusing solely on his own game proved hard. “I just tried to do my own thing and perform as well as possible. And hope I could pull Dimitri along. Yeah, that was very tough,” he reflected. Van den Bergh’s mental state made it even more complicated. “If you’re the second player and you have to be there every time while you feel you’re not in a good place… You’re just hoping your dart finds the treble.” Belgian public opinion only made it heavier, with the tournament dominating talk in Belgium for months before it began. “Great for Dimi,” De Decker said sarcastically. “He had to play, but the whole of Belgium was already tearing him down because it wasn’t clicking. Instead of giving him a lift and backing him… No, they just tore him down.”
De Decker says it is impossible to perform when a player is already wrestling with himself and constantly feels the whole country is judging him. “What do they still expect from the lad when he has to throw?!” he asked. His comments make clear he mainly wants Van den Bergh to get the space to find himself again, stressing that ‘The Dreammaker’ played a key role in Belgian darts for years and that one difficult spell does not change that. Van den Bergh’s future remains uncertain – when and how he will return to the PDC circuit is unclear. But De Decker, in any case, will not keep pushing him to come back. He prefers to be there as a friend whenever Van den Bergh needs it.
