Michael van Gerwen names his top four Dutch sports stars of all time

Michael van Gerwen has named his top four Dutch sports stars of all time and you may well struggle to guess them.

The darts legend left himself out of the short list, instead giving the nods to stars of football, F1 and cycling.

TalkSPORT posed the tricky question to MVG but he took no time at all in naming his top two.

‘Max Verstappen, Johan Cruyff,’ Van Gerwen reckons come in as the top two in the history of Dutch sports stars.

Next in line might be a new name unless you follow cycling, but Van Gerwen clearly knows his cyclo-cross.

‘Mathieu van der Poel, he’s a cyclist,’ said MVG. ‘He wins everything.’

Completing his top four, Van Gerwen somewhat controversially picked another footballer, but maybe not the most obvious choice.

‘Because I like him, Ruud van Nistelrooy,’ said the three-time world champion.

Van Gerwen is never afraid to give a strong opinion on things, with the PDC in Germany last week for the Premier League and a European Tour event, the Dutchman was happy to question the darting talent in the country.

‘Germans are better at watching darts than playing it,’ Van Gerwen told BILD. ‘For a country the size of Germany, their players are massively underperforming.

‘How is it that the Netherlands produces far better darters?’

Van Gerwen was forced to withdraw from the Premier League night in Berlin last Thursday due to a shoulder injury.

He was back in action on Tuesday at Players Championship 11 in Leicester but it did not go well, losing to Maik Kuivenhoven 6-5 in the last 128.

There are two days of Players Championship action in Leicester before Premier League Night 10 in Manchester on Thursday.

There MVG will take on Chris Dobey in the quarter-finals, while Luke Littler meets Gerywn Price, Nathan Aspinall takes on Rob Cross and Luke Humphries faces man of the moment Stephen Bunting.

The Bullet had been struggling in the Premier League, not playing poorly but failing to win a game after eight weeks of action before ending that run in style by winning Night 9 in Berlin last week.

He followed that up by winning the International Darts Open in Riesa on Sunday to finish off a dream week.

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