Phil Taylor has named the three players he believes can deny Luke Littler a third successive World Darts Championship title, overlooking Gian van Veen and Michael van Gerwen.
The 19-year-old, known as The Nuke, will be the overwhelming favourite to retain the sport's biggest prize when his Alexandra Palace campaign begins on December 11. Before his surprise defeat to Jonny Clayton at the World Series Finals in Amsterdam, he had won every major tournament in 2026.
Next up for Littler is the World Grand Prix in Leicester, which begins on Monday.
Taylor's three contenders
The sixteen-time world champion picked out three players who could potentially topple Littler at Ally Pally over Christmas, snubbing the last two World Championship runners-up, Van Gerwen and Van Veen.
Taylor told The Sun: "At the minute, the only person who can give Luke Littler a game is Luke Humphries. Gerwyn Price, he can do it too. Very, very good player."
"Jonny Clayton, on his day, he's a brilliant finisher. But there's only four or five in that tournament who could really win it. There's only a handful of players that can actually win it."
"But I think at the minute, there's only a handful of players who actually believe they can win it. A lot of people are just making up the numbers."
Rankings shake-up
Humphries, who beat Littler to the 2024 world title, recently regained second spot in the world rankings, overtaking 2026 runner-up Van Veen. Meanwhile, Price has climbed to fourth thanks to a consistent season, one spot ahead of Clayton.
Van Gerwen, who succeeded Taylor as darts' top player a decade ago, has slid down to ninth, having not won a ranking title since the end of 2022.
Littler's future concerns
Amid Littler's domination of darts, there are fears he could walk away from the sport after being booed at several events, including the World Series Finals. He has threatened to stop playing in the Netherlands, having previously said he could boycott tournaments in Germany.
Littler, who is due to play at the European Championship in Dortmund in October, told Online Darts: "With the Germans, I haven't been for a long time, we will have to see in Dortmund whether it changes or stays the same."
"If the Dutch stay like this, then I'm not going to do any Euro tours over there. There's just no point in me travelling, wasting my time whilst I'm getting booed. I just want to play my darts, obviously sign autographs."
"The past two nights, I've done nothing, I've just walked off stage and not thanked anyone. There's no point thanking everyone when they are booing me."
