Snooker legend and current world number one Ronnie O’Sullivan is aiming for his seventh World Championship title at the ongoing 2022 tournament, as he looks to add to his 38 career trophies since turning professional at 16 in 1982.
The Rocket has enjoyed plenty of financial success due to his remarkable achievements so far and is one of the richest snooker players in the world, but there have also been a number of struggles throughout his career for which he has come under scrutiny.
Here, Mirror Sport takes a look at O’Sullivan’s eventful snooker career, net worth and colourful off-table endeavours.
Career recap
Since turning professional at the age of just 16 in 1992, O’Sullivan has gone on to become one of the most successful and accomplished players in the history of the sport and holds the world record for most career titles with 38. He is the world's current number one, and has held that ranking on a number of occasions over the past 30 years.
He won his first ranking title at 17 at the 1993 UK Championship, which still makes him the youngest ever player to win a professional ranking event. After that came another six UK Championship titles, along with six World Championships and seven Masters Championships. Winning these three prestigious titles is known as the Triple Crown, which O’Sullivan has done on 20 occasions.
As well as being the youngest player to ever win a professional ranking event, he also holds the record for being the second oldest to ever win a world title, after securing the 2020 World Snooker Championship. O’Sullivan is currently competing in the 2022 version, where he hopes to win his 39th career title.
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Net worth
Winning 38 ranking titles in a career that has spanned 40 years has certainly had its financial benefits and O’Sullivan is one of the highest earning snooker players within the sport. He has an estimated net worth of $14 million (£10.7 million), while he has won $15m (£11.5m) in tournament money alone in what has been a highly successful career.
He has also earned a great deal of money from lucrative sponsorships and has struck up deals with the likes of Premier Inn, graphic design company Affinity, Delasport and US technology firm ROKIT. Outside his playing career, O'Sullivan works as a pundit and presenter for Eurosport's snooker coverage.
With regards to his own business ventures, he has written crime novels, autobiographies and a health and fitness book, while he starred in the miniseries ‘Ronnie O'Sullivan's American Hustle’. He has also been involved with several video games, including his own ‘Ronnie O'Sullivan's Snooker’. He was awarded an OBE in 2016.
Controversies
O’Sullivan has been disciplined multiple times by snooker's governing body for his behaviour and statements. In 1996, he received a suspended two-year ban after assaulting an assistant press officer and in 2006, he was fined for walking out of a UK Championship quarter-final. Elsewhere, he has directed plenty of criticism at Barry Hearn, who took charge of World Snooker in 2010, and even threatened to form a breakaway snooker tour in 2018 in protest of his changes to the sport.
More recently, O'Sullivan publicly criticised the standard of new players breaking into snooker during the 2020 World Championship, stating that he would have to "lose an arm and a leg” to fall out of the top 50. In 2021, he said that most snooker players had wasted their lives in a "bad sport" that can cause "a lot of damage”, while in April 2022, he was caught making lewd gestures during his first round match at the World Snooker Championship on live TV.
Due to his various antics, he has come under plenty of scrutiny from the media throughout his career, while he has suffered from depression and struggled with drugs and alcohol in his early life, but sought solutions to his problems and tried to better himself throughout his adulthood.
Family
Ronnie grew up in Chigwell, Essex, and still lives there but when he was 16, his life took a huge hit when his father was arrested and later jailed for murder, before his mother was also arrested and jailed for tax evasion.
Nonetheless, he created a much better family life of his own and although he has never been married, he has two daughters and one son. Taylor-Ann Magnus (26) is from an early, two-year relationship with Sally Magnus, while Lily (16) and Ronnie Jr (15) are from a relationship with former partner Jo Langley.
O’Sullivan has endured a distant relationship with his eldest child, but is said to have a strong bond with his two youngest children. Ronnie is currently single after splitting with actress Laila Rouass in February 2022, following a 10-year relationship in which they became engaged in 2013.
