You didn’t need to be a talent scout to recognise snooker superstar Ronnie O’Sullivan was destined for greatness.
Those at the Ilford Snooker Club were given an especially close look at just how good O’Sullivan was during his teenage years.
talkSPORT’s own Andy Goldstein, who was a childhood friend of O’Sullivan’s, was one who bore witness to what he described as ‘extraordinary’ and ‘ridiculous’ talent from the future seven-time world champion.
The duo go way back as they went to the same school together and Goldstein even acted as O’Sullivan’s chauffeur as he ferried him around town in his mother’s Ford Fiesta.
Unsurprisingly, a large number of those trips involved Goldstein, who is a snooker enthusiast and has presented various snooker tournaments on television, ferrying O’Sullivan to the Ilford Snooker Club.
But on one of those visits, a 14-year-old O’Sullivan decided he’d rob Goldstein of a special snooker feat he had yet to see for his own eyes.
Speaking to talkSPORT.com, Goldstein recounted the moment O’Sullivan proved he had ice running through his veins, even at a young age.
“He (O’Sullivan) went red, black, red, black, red, black, all the way to 15 reds, 15 blacks, yellow, green, brown, blue, pink,” Goldstein said.
“So he’s on a maximum. He was on a 147. He’s a young kid. He’s 13 or 14.
“He pots the pink and he’s bang on the final black. Me personally, I’d have been 16 or 17 – and I’d never seen one of these live, let alone be the opponent.
“I used to go and watch snooker all the time. I’d never been to Wembley Conference Centre and seen anyone get close to a maximum.
“Ronnie’s on this final black and then he starts picking the balls out the pocket to rewrap the frame.
GettyThe 49-year-old had an ice-cold response to Goldstein’s request[/caption]
“I was like, ‘What are you doing!?’ And he just looked at me, with no arrogance, but he was deadly serious.
“He just said, ‘Well I’m not going to miss’. And I was like, ‘Just pot the ball so I can see a 147. He went, ‘Nah you pot it’.
“I was like, ‘No it’s not the same, you pot it’ – and he wouldn’t pot it.”
“For him, he’d got millions of them before, and he’d get a million more.”
Goldstein’s prediction was not wrong.
Throughout O’Sullivan’s glittering career, he has made 15 maximum breaks in professional competition.
It is a figure unmatched by any of his rivals.
One of those also earned O’Sullivan the honour of becoming a Guiness World Record holder, as he hit a 147 break at the 1997 World Championship in just five minutes and eight seconds.
Remarkably, that was the first competitive maximum break made by O’Sullivan in his professional career.
But one can only imagine the sheer number of maximum breaks achieved by O’Sullivan away from the cameras and the public eye.
