Luke Littler’s surprising friendship with David Beckham didn’t start off smoothly when the young darts star accidentally ignored him.
The 17-year-old world champion, who is a big Manchester United fan, looks up to Beckham as one of his idols, along with darts legends Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld.
When Beckham, 49, tried to reach out to Littler during the 2023/2024 PDC World Championships, where Littler lost in the final, the teenager didn’t even notice Beckham’s request to follow him on Instagram and left him waiting for several days.
Littler explained, “It was during the world championships but I didn’t even see it in my requests. I follow him but I didn’t see it. My sister was checking everything to see if anyone had got in contact during the worlds and she found it.”
When they finally got in touch, Littler said Beckham simply said, “Once a Red, always a Red.”
Littler teased Beckham about this at the Sports Personality of the Year ceremony, joking that the former Real Madrid star still hadn’t followed him, even though his sister had found the request months before.
Since then, Littler, who recently defeated Michael van Gerwen to win the PDC World Championship and avenge his loss from last year to Luke Humphries, is now in regular contact with Beckham, who congratulated him again after his latest victory.
Beckham isn’t the only Manchester United legend to offer Littler encouragement. He also received a pep talk from former manager Sir Alex Ferguson, 83, who led the club to 13 Premier League titles.
However, Littler admitted that Ferguson’s advice didn’t have quite the same impact as Beckham’s. Speaking on the Sky Max show A League of Their Own, Littler said, “If I’m honest, I didn’t really understand him.”
Littler, who hails from Warrington, is also celebrating another milestone. After his World Championship win, it was revealed that ITV would be commissioning a full series of Bullseye. Littler appeared in a Christmas special alongside former Ashes hero Freddie Flintoff, 47. The special was a huge hit, drawing nearly 7 million viewers, and a new batch of episodes is expected to be filmed later this year.
