It’s never easy to predict who the future world champions will be in darts.
Some players are destined for greatness at a young age such as Adrian Lewis, Michael van Gerwen and Luke Littler, but sometimes, you can get a champion who comes from out of nowhere.
Rob Cross was a relative unknown when he became world champion back in 2018, Kirk Shepherd came within a whisker of a world title as an unranked player in 2008, while Luke Humphries became a champion this year after almost quitting the game a few years ago.
Speaking to PDC Europe, Jonny Clayton, along with a few more of darts’ biggest stars, has had a go at predicting which player will be a future World Champion, and he’s named Josh Rock as a player he believes can go all the way.
Josh Rock a future World Champion
Clayton spoke about Rock and how far he can go in the game.
“Who is a future World Champion?” Clayton was asked.
“Next to me, I think as young stars who are going to come through, Josh Rock is up there,” Clayton said.
Josh Rock will have big competition
Josh Rock certainly has the talent to go on and win major titles in the PDC, but the competition is going to be more fierce than ever before.
Yes, Rock may be just 23 years old, but there are so many talented players who have so many years ahead of them.
Nathan Aspinall, Michael Smith and Luke Humphries are all under the age of 33, and probably have another 15 years at the top should they continue working as hard as they currently are.
Michael van Gerwen is himself only 35 years old, and with the likes of Peter Wright and Phil Taylor winning World titles well into their 50s, MVG could still have 15 years of quality play ahead of him.
Of course, all of that is before we get onto Luke Littler who could genuinely dominate this sport for the next 30 years by the looks of things.
Josh Rock has the natural ability to make it to the top. After all, he has hit a nine-darter on a major stage against Michael van Gerwen, but he’ll have to work incredibly hard on the practice board to get there.