Raymond van Barneveld has accepted an apology from Romeo Grbavac after he used the five-time world champion’s iconic walk-on music at Alexandra Palace on Thursday
Raymond van Barneveld has accepted an apology from Romeo Grbavac after he used the five-time world champion’s iconic walk-on music at Alexandra Palace on Thursday Raymond van Barneveld has accepted an apology from Romeo Grbavac after he used the five-time world champion’s iconic walk-on music at Alexandra Palace on Thursday
Romeo Grbavac has apologised to darts legend Raymond van Barneveld after using his iconic ‘Eye of the Tiger’ walk-on song at the World Darts Championship.
Grbavac used the music as he made his Alexandra Palace debut on Thursday in a first-round clash against Callan Rydz, prompting a response from Van Barneveld on social media. The five-time world champion simply wrote “Erm….” alongside a confused face emoji and emojis of both an eye and a tiger.
Luke Littler also reacted, sharing a clip of Grbavac’s entrance and asking Van Barneveld if he had changed his walk-on song. However, that is not the case and Grbavac has since sent a message to Van Barneveld.
“Hello Barney, this song wasn’t my choice and I don’t know why they played it,” Grbavac said. Van Barneveld then shared his message on social media and wrote: “Ok all is forgiven pal”, alongside by a laughing emoji and a thumbs-up emoji.
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Van Barneveld will walk out to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ on December 21 when he plays his first match of the tournament against Nick Kenny. The Dutchman has been using the song for years, having chosen it as his walk-on music due to his love for the Rocky Balboa films.
The song was written for Rocky III and Van Barneveld previously spoke about his affinity for the franchise in an interview with Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, revealing that he sees a number of parallels between his career and the films.
”I’ve always been a big fan of Rocky,” he said. “That he is through, that he becomes world champion, that he wins easily, that he is defeated, that his wife has to speak to him on the beach and he says: I’m afraid! Those are things I’ve actually experienced in my life.”
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If Van Barneveld can beat Kenny in his second round match, he will face defending champion Luke Humphries next. However, Kenny is feeling confident he can produce an upset, stating: “I fancy my chances against Barney because I’m the underdog at the end of the day.
“Play my darts, and I’ve got a good chance of winning. Littler follows us, it isn’t the game you all wanted (vs Fallon Sherrock). But I know when I’m playing, I’m not waiting for a game to finish, so I’ll do exactly the same as I did today: get the preparation right. We’ve both got three darts so we will see what happens.”
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