Luke Littler could make darts history tonight by becoming the youngest world champion of all time.

The 17-year-old has powered his way to a second successive PDC World Darts Championship final, beating Ryan Meikle, Ian White, Ryan Joyce and Nathan Aspinall before demolishing Stephen Bunting 6-1 in Thursday night's semi-final.

Now, only three-time world champion Michael van Gerwen stands between Littler and the world title, a new record and a cool £500,000 jackpot win.

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Victory would also mark what has been, as an understatement, a whirlwind year for the teenager, who took the darts world by storm 12 months ago with an extraordinary debut campaign at Alexandra Palace. Having come into the tournament as a relative unknown, the-then 16-year-old blew everyone away as he reached the final, which he ultimately lost to Luke Humphries.

Since then, Littler has taken everything in his stride, winning the Premier League, Grand Slam and World Series Finals in a remarkable tournament run in 2024. Last month, he was also named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year and narrowly missed out on the main award, finishing as runner-up behind Olympic 800m champion Keeley Hodgkinson.

But this time last year, this was all new to the ace from Runcorn and he has now admitted that he had to get away from it all after achieving sporting superstardom virtually overnight. His showdown with Humphries in the final, for example, attracted the biggest non-football audience in the 35-year history.

To get away from the noise, Littler told the Telegraph that he escaped to a secret 'bolthole' location in Wales following last year's final. He has now vowed to do it again if the attention gets too much this time around, telling the paper: “If the same happens, I’ll hide away again, no one will find me."

But while some feared that the teenager may be overawed by his sudden rise to fame, he, in general, believes there are very few downsides to becoming one of the most recognisable faces in sport.

“I don’t really know," he told the publication when asked what the best and worst things were about sudden fame. "It’s good to have a following. People send nice messages – there’s not really too many negatives.

"Obviously you get off a late flight – 1am, 2am – and people are asking for pictures but I’m, ‘Go on, you may as well, you might not see me again’.”

The pre-tournament favourite, Littler has been tipped to defeat van Gerwen in Friday night's final and add a huge half a million pounds to his career earnings, having already banked over £1 million in 2024 alone.