Vincent van der Voort has questioned Gian van Veen's decision to attend a Borussia Dortmund football match shortly after his exit from the European Darts Championship, speaking on the Darts Draait Door podcast. Van der Voort also believes Van Veen, now second in the world rankings, must start winning major titles to fulfill expectations.
Van der Voort acknowledged Van Veen's consistency, noting his semi-final run at the World Matchplay and quarter-final at the World Grand Prix, along with strong European Tour results. However, he argued that being world number two invites criticism. "You can be quite critical of how he played this weekend when you're the world number two. A lot of people won't agree, simply because he is second in the world," he said. He added that the Netherlands has many good players but lacks a regular winner of televised majors: "We have top players, but we don't have anyone at the very top who can win a televised tournament right now. We're a country with a lot of good players. One player goes deep, then another, and Gian goes deepest most often."
Van der Voort stressed that Van Veen's results are strong but that a high ranking brings greater demands. "It's not as though all his results have been poor. He's doing very well and often reaches the semi-finals on the Euro Tour. But if you want to go a little further, you have to win at some point. You have to play those matches really well, and that isn't happening right now." He also warned of the mental toll: "At some point in your career, you reach a stage where it's make or break. If you don't start winning, does it become an issue in your head and send everything downhill? Or can you put it into perspective and still be satisfied with what you're doing?" He added that pressure grows with time: "At first, you can think: I don't care, it'll happen eventually. But the longer it goes on, the more it becomes an issue. The press will make it a talking point too, and then you hear about it more and more."
The podcast also discussed Van Veen's post-tournament outing to watch Borussia Dortmund with Stephen Bunting. Van der Voort was puzzled: "You'd think: you've just taken a beating, and now you're off to watch Dortmund. If I'd just lost, Dortmund could have collapsed for all I cared. It wouldn't have mattered to me at all." He added, "Within an hour, you haven't really processed it yet. I just wouldn't have been in the right frame of mind. I'd have been gutted about losing." Nevertheless, he conceded, "Perhaps that's one of his strengths. Apparently, he handles it pretty well."
On Bunting, Van der Voort had praise: "Bunting is a really nice guy. He's the very definition of friendly and always makes time for everyone. He's struggled with his form quite a bit this year, but he played well in this tournament." For Van Veen, Van der Voort has no doubts about his ability but insists he must convert strong results into titles, as the expectations will only increase for the world number two.
