GOAT TALK
Ronnie O’Sullivan, 48, says ‘I’m NOT the greatest player ever’ as he reveals why he ranks TWO snooker legends as better
The Rocket's picks are hardly a surprise
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN is widely regarded as the greatest snooker player of all time, but he insists he's NOT the sport's GOAT.
The 48-year-old begins his pursuit of a record-breaking EIGHTH Crucible title on Wednesday against Jackson Page.
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An eighth triumph will see O'Sullivan move one clear of Stephen Hendry and further cement fans' beliefs that he's the best to ever do it, an honour he refuses to accept.
He told The BBC: "I don’t regard myself as the greatest. I’m one of them, maybe.
"You’ve got Hendry, [six-time world champion Steve] Davis, and my hat’s in the ring with them.
"I’ve had a different career to them.
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"They did it over a ten-year period, whereas I’ve sort of gone off track, got myself together, back off track, then got myself back together.
“I’ve had to go on longer to get what I’ve got.
"I was a bit all over the show at times with stuff going on off the table and that can affect how you perform on it.
"Hendry and Davis pretty much had everything fitted around them to be focused on snooker and I didn’t have that.”
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'I'd rather not have the snooker, just a normal family' - Inside Ronnie O'Sullivan's troubled childhood
RONNIE O'SULLIVAN has enjoyed an incredible career as snooker's biggest star.
But the Rocket's turbulent past has led to struggles with mental health, addiction and yo-yo weight battles.
O'Sullivan's parents ran a chain of sex shops in Essex and his father was jailed for 20 years for murder when he was just 16.
In the Amazon documentary The Edge of Everything, the snooker icon admitted his dad going to prison had a profound effect.
He said: "I didn't want to blame everything on that situation with my dad, but I was thinking, 'I'd rather not have the snooker. just a normal family'. Because… It was a dream, but looking back, it was a nightmare."
Just a year later, Ronnie became the youngest ever UK Champion, seven days before his 18th birthday. Then at 19, in 1994, he became the youngest Masters champion.
But he has already begun to binge on drink and drugs and, when his mum was sent to prison for tax evasion, in 1996, he struggled to cope with looking after his eight–year-old sister alone.
Click here to read more about Ronnie's incredible life...
O'Sullivan is honoured to even be in the snooker GOAT conversation, adding: “As a kid I would have been desperate to be up there with those guys.
"But when you get there you see it as a bit of an anti-climax and it’s not as great as you thought it would be.
Rob Walker and The Sun's Rob Maul on Ronnie O'Sullivan's chances at the World Snooker Championship
“By then you’re so far in, it’s too late to back out and live it all again. You go ‘I’ve got what I’ve got’ and you take the other benefits of it.”
O'Sullivan - who is on course to win the Triple Crown this season - has made a number of lifestyle changes in recent years and feels fitter than ever.
So much so he reckons he could keep sinking shots for another ten years.
He said: “I love playing. I get to travel pretty much wherever I want to go to play snooker and take time off when I want to.
“I’m my own boss, and they’re the most important things.
“You want to win because competitiveness has been in me. I have to have that approach no matter what.
"Whether that makes me the greatest or not, I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter.”
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