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

DARTS icon Michael van Gerwen has been sporting a shaved head for more than a decade.

Pictures of the now 34-year-old three-time world champion in his youth are virtually unrecognisable from the star we regularly see winning matches at the oche.

The Dutchman 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.

CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO WELCOME OFFERS

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

Last week, he beat Luke Littler to the Dutch Masters title and will be looking to win the Premier League Darts when it returns this week.

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 in 2022, is renowned for his eccentric mohawk.

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