Esslingen's Kai Gotthardt fights for a place in the darts elite!

In an exciting finale of the PDC European Q-School 2025 in Kalkar, 29-year-old Kai Gotthardt from Esslingen am Neckar successfully secured a right to play on the PDC tour. Gotthardt prevailed against Steven Noster with a narrow 6:5, after previously being 0:3 behind. This victory gives him a tour card that is valid for the next two years, as n-tv reported.

Gotthardt is now the eighth German player to be represented on the PDC tour. Other German players include Martin Schindler, Gabriel Clemens, Ricardo Pietreczko, Florian Hempel, Niko Springer, Tim Wolters and Lukas Wenig. Paul Krohne, on the other hand, voluntarily returned his tour card, which was still valid for one year.

Final round of the Q-School and other participants

The final round in Kalkar, which runs until Sunday, will attract a total of 128 qualified players competing for a total of 29 tour cards. Compared to the UK Q-School, more authorizations are available in Europe (12 in Europe versus 9 in the UK). Daily winners receive their tour card directly without having to rely on the Order of Merit.

In addition to Kai Gotthardt, the players who have already qualified from the first three days include Max Hopp, David Cameron, Marcel Walpen, Dennie Olde Kalter and Damian Mol. Hopp was previously a promising player, but lost his eligibility to play at the end of 2022 and is now back in the running.

The qualifiers in the final round also consist of automatically qualified players such as Jeffrey de Zwaan, Adam Gawlas and Rowby-John Rodriguez. Joachim Duerbeck, Patrick Bulen and Sebastian Steyer, however, are no longer represented in the final round, while Dominik Nebe, Christopher Toonders and György Jehirszki replace them.

For further information about the players and what is happening at the PDC European Q-School 2025, please refer to the reporting by n-tv and DartsNews.