Snooker world united in calling for Ronnie O'Sullivan to win 2020 SPOTY - 'It's about time'
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Updated 20/12/2020 at 10:27 GMT
After Ronnie O'Sullivan clinched his sixth World Championship title at the Crucible earlier this year he was finally nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. Remarkably, it's the first time in his long and glorious career that he has been shortlisted. The winner will be announced on December 20.
Ronnie O'Sullivan of England celebrates with the trophy after winning the final match against Neil Robertson of Australia on day six of 2019 Coral Tour Championship at Venue Cymru on March 24, 2019 in Llandudno, Wales.
Image credit: Eurosport
Snooker stars have been calling for Ronnie O'Sullivan to finally get the recognition he is due at the 2020 SPOTY awards.
His world title - coming in his record 28th consecutive Crucible appearance - was his sixth, taking him to 37 ranking trophies over the course of his career, and 20 in the Triple Crown series.
The public will vote for the winner during a live show on Sunday December 20, and top players in the game have made it clear that O'Sullivan - and the sport of snooker - should come out on top.
World number one Judd Trump said: "It's nice for snooker to get recognition really, and I think he's done enough in the game to get nominated about 10 times really.
"He's done so much in the sport so it's good for him to be up there, and it gives everyone else something to work towards to know that snooker does get some kind of recognition."
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'It's long overdue' - Snooker united: Ronnie O'Sullivan for SPOTY
One of O'Sullivan's biggest rivals, Mark Selby, said: "It's fantastic, not just for Ronnie, but for snooker in general as well. For me, he's one of the greatest sportsmen out there.
Why it's taken that long to put Ronnie on the shortlist I'll never know because, for me, he should have been in it a long, long time ago. Snooker seems to have been overlooked as far as SPOTY goes, for whatever reason.
"I mean, what else can he do? He's won everything in the game time and time again and he still never gets recognition, so it's nice that this time he has."
Another former world champion, Neil Robertson, added: "It's certainly about time. I can think of maybe four or five other years when Ronnie should have been nominated and I thought it was pretty scandalous that he wasn't.
"With Ronnie winning his sixth world title he's got a much-deserved nomination. Let's hope that he can have a really good showing and hopefully win."
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It's about time! - Eurosport studio on Ronnie O'Sullivan SPOTY nomination
Eurosport pundit Neal Foulds has said that the nomination is well deserved for O'Sullivan to recognise his 'wonderful talent' and achievements.
"Ronnie’s career has spanned a long time," Foulds said. "There was a period when he was seen as a bit of an under-achiever. When it got past 2000 you thought, 'he’s won a few things but he’s this wonderful talent who hasn’t won that much'. Now he’s won it all and he’s won it again and again.
"He’s the current world champion and all those years must amount to something. It’s never boring when he is playing, there is always something going on, and he deserves to be on that list."
Fellow Eurosport expert and snooker legend Jimmy White added: "It’s about time he got recognised for his amazing achievements in snooker. I hope everybody votes for him."
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