\n<\/p>\n
Wayne Rooney and Luke Littler both know what it is like to be thrust into the limelight at a young age.<\/b><\/p>\n
A 16-year-old Rooney made the world sit up and take notice when he scored a stunning late winner for Everton against Arsenal in 2002.<\/p>\n
At 18, he joined Manchester United in a \u00a327m move, and by the time he was 21 he was a Premier League champion.<\/p>\n
Darts world number one Littler was also 16 when he burst on to the scene by reaching the final of the 2024 World Championship.<\/p>\n
He won both the Premier League and World Championship at 17 and successfully defended his world crown at 18.<\/p>\n
At 19, he has 12 major titles to his name.<\/p>\n
But when did Rooney and Littler realise that they could be among the best at such a young age?<\/p>\n
“I’ve always had belief and this is where I think there’s loads of comparisons [between us]. I think you have to have a certain level of arrogance to be at your best,” Rooney told Littler in the latest episode of BBC Sport’s The Wayne Rooney Show.<\/p>\n
“When I got in Everton’s first team, I’ve said it many times, I felt like I was the best player at 16.”<\/p>\n
For Littler, his moment of realisation came when he was beating players more than double his age.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been playing tournament-wise for many years, maybe my first proper tournament was at like nine, maybe 10,” he said. “And just like Wayne said, when you’ve showed a bit of arrogance, the more you do it, obviously people might not like it, but as long as you feel comfortable about doing it, that’s all that matters.<\/p>\n
“When I started playing in pub leagues I started playing against adults. They weren’t happy losing to a 10 or 11-year-old. <\/p>\n
“When I was beating them, I was going to the darts academy in St Annes as well, and I think the younger players in there were better than these old men. I was pretty much winning all the time.”<\/p>\n
The spotlight on Littler only got brighter when he won BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year in 2024, 22 years after Rooney did.<\/p>\n
“The press can be mind boggling – you’re not used to it,” said Rooney.<\/p>\n
“And [coming] from a similar area as I imagine to where Luke is from, you’re not used to that. <\/p>\n
“You’re not used to media, you’re not used to talking in front of cameras and, and it can be intimidating, but one thing which is always remains is your safe place.<\/p>\n
“Mine was on the football pitch and I would imagine where he’s comfortable is on the oche where he’s playing, that’s where no one can get to him. He’s safe – they can write what they want.”<\/p>\n
Littler has started to draw more criticism over the past year or so, most recently following a mid-match spat with Gian van Veen during a quarter-final defeat on night nine of the Premier League in Manchester.<\/p>\n
“When I first came on the scene, we were always looking at comments and everything, normally family, but now we just get used to it and just block it out,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s always negativity with I think not only darts and football, every sport. Not everyone is going to like you and that’s just that’s just the way it is.<\/p>\n
“Obviously the fans that pay the tickets, pay the money to watch us in person… I think obviously they do mean the most because obviously they want to watch us play good darts. <\/p>\n
“But with the media – and bringing social media into it for the first time after the first [World Championship win in 2025] – it was hard to not bite back at people. But now it’s just: Just leave it. We’ve gotten used to it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Wayne Rooney and Luke Littler both know what it is like to be thrust into the limelight at a young age. A 16-year-old Rooney made the world sit up and take notice when he scored a stunning late winner for Everton against Arsenal in 2002. At 18, he joined Manchester United in a \u00a327m move,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}