Wessel Nijman is waiting to face Martin Schindler at the European Championship in Dortmund, and the 26-year-old Dutchman arrives as the second seed and the 12th-ranked player in the world. Schindler only secured his place at the European Championship at the final European Tour event in Maastricht and goes into the match as the 31st seed, with the head-to-head record favouring Nijman. Here is a closer look at the top seed on the Pro Tour.
Nijman was born on 26 June 2000 in Uitgeest, a village in North Holland. He throws Mission Darts and his walk-on song is “Summer of ’69” by Bryan Adams. He has no nickname, considering the tradition silly and describing himself as a down-to-earth, ordinary lad. He has already won six PDC titles this year. Nijman started playing darts when he was eight or nine, with Raymond van Barneveld his hero at the time; asked about players from outside the Netherlands, he names Adrian Lewis. As a child, his older brother used to play darts with their neighbour Niels Zonneveld, who also competes on the PDC Tour and is in Dortmund. Wessel joined in later and soon surpassed his brother.
Considered one of the Netherlands’ brightest young talents from an early age, Nijman won several titles in youth darts. In 2020, a scandal brought his progress to a halt: the Darts Regulation Authority’s disciplinary committee banned him for five years after he deliberately lost a match 0–4. Half of the ban was suspended after he took part in training and anti-corruption measures. He returned in 2023, won several Development Tour titles and secured a Tour Card.
Nijman worked as an electrician for many years. At the start of 2026, he quit his job and increased his practice from around one hour to three or four hours a day. The impact was clear: he began the year 29th in the Order of Merit and had won four titles by April, a tally matched only by Luke Littler. He claimed his first European Tour title in Göttingen, beating Gerwyn Price 8–3 in the final.
On his European Championship debut in 2025, Nijman narrowly lost 6–5 to Michael van Gerwen in the first round. After his breakthrough, he beat van Gerwen for the first time in his career in Sindelfingen. He is strict about his phone, switching it to aeroplane mode during tournaments; after winning the title in Göttingen, it buzzed and beeped for minutes on end.
