Manchester United and England legend Wayne Rooney has made a knighthood appeal
Wayne Rooney has despatched a knighthood message(Image: DeFodi Images, DeFodi Images through Getty Images)
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has championed snooker icon Ronnie O’Sullivan to be given a knighthood. The former England star made his appeal to King Charles after being requested to call his 5 biggest sports activities stars of all time, with ‘The Rocket’ claiming the highest spot.
O’Sullivan has been a dominant power in elite snooker for many years, having claimed a joint-record seven world championships. The 50-year-old secured his first world title 25 years in the past and has amassed a exceptional 23 Triple Crown victories, greater than every other participant in historical past.
Rooney loved a glittering profession of his personal, changing into Manchester United’s all-time main scorer and beforehand holding the identical document for England. Despite successful loads of silverware throughout his time at United, BBC Sport pundit Rooney confessed to being in awe of O’Sullivan’s expertise and firmly believes the snooker great is deserving of a knighthood.
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“In my opinion, he should be Sir Ronnie O’Sullivan,” he mentioned on The Wayne Rooney Show. “He needs to be knighted. He ought to, perhaps [it’s] as a result of he is controversial.
“We’re seeing all these MBEs, OBEs, individuals getting knighted for various issues. Some rightly, some wrongly, for my part.
“Ronnie O’Sullivan, for what he’s done for snooker and the titles he’s won, going over to different countries as well doing it, he should be knighted. Maybe he doesn’t fit.”
O’Sullivan has claimed 41 rating titles and continues to rewrite the document books. During final month’s World Open, he produced the very best break within the sport’s historical past with a 153, surpassing the usual 147 most after capitalising on an early free ball.
Rooney hailed the seven-time world champion as the best sportsperson of all time, although he intentionally selected to exclude footballers from his rankings. The 40-year-old positioned US sporting icons Tom Brady and Michael Jordan joint-fifth, adopted by tennis legend Serena Williams, boxing nice Mike Tyson and golf icon Tiger Woods in second place. Yet, O’Sullivan topped the United legend’s private checklist.
“My number one is, it’s controversial but, for me, I absolutely love him, it’s Ronnie O’Sullivan,” Rooney defined. “I like snooker, I’ve all the time liked snooker.
“In snooker, you’ve got had some absolute legends. Jimmy White, Stephen Hendry, absolute legends in snooker – however Ronnie O’Sullivan comes alongside and simply how he performs the sport, left-hand, right-hand, taking dangers.
“There was the one where he was on a 147 and he missed the black on purpose to make a point about the money the snooker players were getting paid, that it should be more to get a 147. His interviews are brilliant. He’s got a charisma, an aura about him and recently he’s just got a 153, the highest-ever.”
O’Sullivan is scheduled to compete within the 2026 World Snooker Championship later this month and enters the event as the twelfth seed. His most up-to-date world title success arrived in 2022, when he beat Judd Trump 18-13 within the last.
