Darts legend Michael van Gerwen looks unrecognisable with hair and trim figure in amazing old pictures

MICHAEL VAN GERWEN has been sporting the shaved head look for more than a decade now.

So these pictures of the now 33-year-old three-time world champion in his youth are virtually unrecognisable.

RexVan Gerwen has been playing with a shaved head for over 10 years[/caption]

GettyVan Gerwen looks unrecognisable from photos back in 2008[/caption]

RexHe cuts a very different figure now to when he first burst onto the scene[/caption]

GettyThe Dutchman was a young prodigy in darts and has lived up to the billing[/caption]

The Dutchman, who is currently sidelined after undergoing surgery for Carpal tunnel syndrome in his throwing arm, had a gingery auburn head of hair as a youngster – a look he would only keep for the first couple of years of his darts career.

And pictures of him at the 2008 PDC World Darts Championship show just how different he appeared 13 years ago.

Van Gerwen was much trimmer than he is now, but it is the hair which makes him look a completely different player.

Van Gerwen began playing darts at 13 and within just four years was playing against one of the sports great legends in Raymond van Barneveld.

In 2007, aged 17, he threw a nine-darter against Van Barneveld to make history as the youngest player to ever achieve the feat at a televised event.

And the records would continue to tumble for Van Gerwen.

After a few years of inconsistency, he would eventually win his first PDC Tour title in 2012.

And then in 2014 he became the youngest world champion in darts history, beating Peter Wright 7-4 in the final to claim the title at the age of just 24.

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Since then he has gone on to win the championship on two more occasions – in 2017 and 2019.

Van Gerwen will miss this month’s World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt – which he has won on three occasions for his nation – but hopes to be back for the World Matchplay in Blackpool on July 16.

The No3-ranked player on the planet went under the knife today back in his homeland.

Meanwhile, another player who looked totally different back in the day is two-time world champion Wright.

The Scot, who claimed his second world title earlier this month, is renowned for his eccentric mohawk.

But he has not always gone for that outlandish hairstyle as he used to go for a much more modest appearance.

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