Although not a hotbed of darting brilliance, Spain has still produced some fantastic players over the years, including Cristo Reyes and Toni Alcinas – the latter famous for defeating crowd favorite Peter Wright at the 2019 World Championships.

Perhaps the best darts player to ever hail from Spain is, erm, actually Portuguese! Jose De Sousa was born in Lisbon, but has since set up home in Tarragona and, thanks to dual-nationality rules, actually represented Spain at the 2011 WDF World Cup.

The 49-year-old’s career has generally been on the ascendancy ever since then, but a tough season in 2023 has dampened expectations ahead of the most important tournament of the year: the World Championship.

Underdog Story

Those who bet on darts would, in years gone by, have backed De Sousa to lift the trophy in London, but his mediocre campaign means that he’s a mere +15000 outsider in the betting behind favorites Luke Humphries (+350), Michael van Gerwen (+450) and Gerwyn Price (+500).

De Sousa is nicknamed the ‘Special One’ in a nod to his Portuguese compatriot Jose Mourinho, although your own moniker may be even more inspired – use a darts name generator to find out if you can match De Sousa’s ‘special’ motif.

In truth, his performances have been anything but special in 2023. He hasn’t reached the quarter-final stage of a single ranking event this season, with his best effort being a fifth-round turn at the UK Open – even then, he received byes into the fourth round thanks to his world ranking of 15.

De Sousa has subsequently dropped down the rankings to 23, which will at least ensure he is seeded for the World Championship in London this December and January.

And if he can recapture his previous best form, there’s a chance that the Tarragona man can right the wrongs of his 2023 season…

Upward Curve

They say that in life, progress is very rarely a straight line given the typical bumps along the way.

But for De Sousa, progress through the ranks of PDC darts took the form of an upward parabola around the start of the new decade.

He won the European Darts Grand Prix in Germany in the summer of 2020, which would prove to be the catalyst for the biggest win of his career that winter: the Grand Slam of Darts, where he rocketed up the world rankings after defeating James Wade in the final.

With confidence at an all-time high, De Sousa was similarly good in 2021 – reaching the final of the Premier League, where he went down to Jonny Clayton, and semi-finals of the European Championship and the Players Championship.

One of the great curiosities of darts in recent times is why hasn’t he been able to maintain his fine form, having gone from being one of the best in the world to barely winning a game at a major tournament in 2023.

Confidence can be a fickle mistress in individual sports, and you only have to look a golf for similar parallels – Camilo Villegas winning on the PGA Tour this year having nearly lost his professional status altogether in the past due to a lengthy period in the doldrums.

Da Sousa will need to take inspiration from sporting renaissance stories like those if he is to recapture his best form. Make no mistake, at his best, the Spanish-Portuguese is a world champion in waiting.

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