Before this year’s PDC World Championship, Swedish darts history at Ally Pally was brutally short on depth. Never before had one of their natives reached the last 16. Yes, Jeffrey de Graaf achieved the feat twelve months ago and now proudly represents Sweden on the World Cup stage – but his birth certificate says the Netherlands.
Step forward Andreas Harrysson. Fifty years old. Born in Målilla. A qualifier. And now, after dispatching Ricardo Pietreczko, officially etched into the history books on the grandest stage darts has to offer. For tungsten anoraks – particularly of the Scandinavian variety – Harrysson’s name is not new. They’ll give you chapter and verse on his career. For everyone else, this has felt like a bolt from the Nordic blue.
Aesthetically, Harrysson looks exactly how you’d imagine a Scandinavian darts warrior to look. Long beard. Broad presence. Instantly recognisable. Could possibly be mistaken as a Swedish cousin of Simon Whitlock or a member of legendary Amercian rock band, ZZ Top. You half expect thunder when he walks on stage.
Long before the PDC spotlight found him, Harrysson was grinding away across Northern Europe, representing Sweden numerous times during the BDO era at World and Europe Cups. He didn’t stumble into this moment. He built towards it. Those with good memories will recall seeing the Swede pop up on the Euro Tour – the 2020 International Darts Open, the 2021 Gibraltar Darts Trophy, last year’s Belgian Open.
In 2024, he underlined his quality by landing two Challenge Tour titles and a MODUS Super Series crown. Achievements that don’t happen by accident. You have to be incredibly good to win either – let alone both. The Swede has also claimed one the ‘MODUS majors’ winning a Double Trouble week.
This season offered little hint of what was coming. An early exit at the Winmau Masters to Martin Lukeman, then a respectable UK Open showing that ended against Dominik Gruellich. Solid, but hardly headline-grabbing. Even topping the Nordic and Baltic Tour Order of Merit – a serious accomplishment – didn’t place him on many dark-horse radars. And yet, here we are.
With all the attention given to Luke Littler and others of this generation including Josh Rock and Gian Van Veen it is sometimes overlooked that multiple players who may have missed out on opportunity earlier in their lives are getting to re enter the fray after their children are grown and, perhaps, the bills are less of a daily burden.
Harrysson is the living embodiment of darts’ hidden depth – proof that elite-level quality exists well beyond the Pro Tour bubble. You don’t beat PDC title winners like Ross Smith and Pietreczko unless you belong at this level. Simple as that.
Now the Swede stands on the brink of even more history. A World Championship quarter-final awaits, with a heavily decorated Welshman standing between him, a nation daring to dream, and a truly life-changing six-figure payday.
The World Championship does fairytales better than any tournament in sport. This one? A full-blown Scandinavian Cinderella story – beard, belief, and all.
—–ENDS—–
Images: PDC
