After star appearance at BBC SPOTY, Luke Littler can now finally count Man United icon amongst his followers

Łukasz Małyr last weekend he took second place in the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year poll. It wasn’t all bad though, as he won the Young Sports Personality of the Year award and gained a significant new following on social media.

Littler received a message from football icon David Beckham ahead of the awards show wishing him all the best, but revealed the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Paris St Germain and LA Galaxy player hasn’t actually followed The Nuke yet again on social media. “He doesn’t follow me though,” Littler said on the BBC programme, referring to a text message he received from Beckham which he admitted was the moment he “pinched me”.

Later, however, Beckham seemed to get the hint. Littler proudly posted a screenshot of his Instagram followers, showing that Beckham had finally followed him. Littler is also in respectable company now, as Beckham is currently followed by only 635 people – and one of them is currently a teenage donor sensation.

Littler also commented briefly on his second-place finish at the awards ceremony. He said: “It just shows how well I have done this year. But it wasn’t just for myself that I changed the sport to darts [with] all other professionals. But I played a big role in it.”

For Littler, the fight for his first world title starts this weekend at Alexandra Palace. The 17-year-old returns his focus to darts after defeating Ryan Meikle in the second round of the 2025 competition PDC World Darts Championshipsafter “The Barber” denied Fallon Sherrock in the deciding set earlier this week. Littler is widely seen as one of the two main favorites to win the Sid Waddell Trophy, alongside Luke Humphries, and will no doubt be keen to put in a strong performance against Meikle.