José de Sousa

**José Augusto Oliveira de Sousa** (born 12 February 1974) is a Portuguese professional darts player who currently plays in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. In the past, he achieved success in soft-tip darts tournaments. In the second decade of the 21st century he lived in Tarragona, Catalonia. During 2011 WDF World Cup he represented Spain. He was an active member of the Catalonia national team. When competing in Professional Darts Corporation tournaments, he represents country of his origin. He is a multiple medalist of the EDF European Darts Championship. He won his first televised major title at the 2020 Grand Slam of Darts. He is known among darts fans for his maverick-like scoring, relatively frequent miscounts and unorthodox checkouts in matches.

## Career

De Sousa qualified for the 2012 PDC World Darts Championship by winning the Western European Qualifier tournament, beating Eduardo Lopes in the final match. He became the first Portuguese player to qualify for the PDC World Darts Championship. He lost 3–4 in legs in the preliminary round to Devon Petersen. In the rest of the year, he won the Catalonia Championship and the Catalonia Open by beating Antonio Jimenez in the final. In 2013, De Sousa claimed the Bullshooter European Championship with a win over Franck Guillermont. He reached the final of the Catalonia Open in 2015, but lost 1–6 in legs to Carles Arola. De Sousa also won the FCD Anniversary Open in 2016 by overcoming Willem Mandigers 6–1 in the final.

After a first round defeat at the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship to Michael Barnard, De Sousa went to PDC European Q-School in January 2019 and won a PDC Tour Card for the first time, finishing sixth on the Order of Merit to seal at least two years on the PDC Pro Tour. He made gradual improvements throughout his first year on tour, and made his maiden PDC final at Players Championship 18, but lost 5–8 in legs to James Wade. De Sousa then became the first Portuguese player to win a PDC title at Players Championship 23. He beat Peter Wright by 7–3 in the semi-finals and Gerwyn Price by 8–1 in the final.

At the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship he lost 3–0 to Damon Heta in the first round. In March, De Sousa made his debut at the 2020 UK Open, but lost to Welsh youngster Lewis Williams 6–4 in the third round. In 2020, De Sousa won his first PDC European Tour title, beating the number 1 ranked player Michael van Gerwen in the final by 8–4, averaging 105.79. His winning checkout was an unorthodox 88 finish of treble 8, double 14, double 18, and with that victory followed the winners prize of £25,000. Two weeks later in the 2020 European Championship, De Sousa managed to hit his first ever televised nine-dart finish, in a 6–3 win over Jeffrey de Zwaan. Portugal was not on the entry list for 2020 PDC World Cup of Darts, but Singapore withdrew from the competition as Harith Lim couldn't fly to Austria. They were replaced by Portugal (represented by de Sousa and José Marquês) and together they defeated team Hungary in the first round 5–0, however, in the second round they lost to team Austria (Mensur Suljović and Rowby-John Rodriguez.

Continuing a good run of form, De Sousa won his first major title in the 2020 Grand Slam of Darts. After beating Krzysztof Ratajski and Lisa Ashton in the group stages, he then defeated Dave Chisnall, avenged a group stage defeat to Michael Smith in the quarter-finals, beat Simon Whitlock in the semi-finals, then he defeated James Wade in the final 16–12, winning with a 158 checkout. De Sousa became the first ever Portuguese winner of a major tournament, and broke into the world's Top 16 by winning this event.

De Sousa qualified for 2021 PDC World Darts Championship via PDC Order of Merit as 14th seed. He defeated Ross Smith in the second round 3–1, but lost 0–4 to Mervyn King in the third round, despite averaging 103.62. He finished the year in 15th place in the PDC Order of Merit and secured his tour card, and was named as one of the 10 competitors in the 2021 Premier League Darts. At the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship De Sousa lost 3–4 to Alan Soutar in the third round.

## World Championship results

### PDC

* 2012: Preliminary round (lost to Devon Petersen 3–4)
* 2019: First round (lost to Michael Barnard 2–3)
* 2020: First round (lost to Damon Heta 0–3)
* 2021: Third round (lost to Mervyn King 0–4)
* 2022: Third round (lost to Alan Soutar 3–4)
* 2023: Fourth round (lost to Gerwyn Price 1–4)

## References

1. ↑ World Matchplay: Jose De Sousa keeps on surprising 18 months into PDC life (14 July 2020).
2. ↑ European Q School Tour Card Winners Confirmed. PDC.

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