Friends and Heroes

Challenge #6

Top 10 Challenge. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it.

I always love making lists of my top 10s, so this is a great challenge. But... what to choose? My first thought was to make it about my top 10 video games, but right now I'm not even sure I have ten proper answers to that. I fell out of Genshin Impact when Natlan was released, and that was the obvious "modern" game on my list - other than that I mostly play either simple games on the phone, or old games from the NES/SNES era, neither of which could measure up to modern games in terms of complexity or graphics. Then I also thought of video game characters, but I already did something similar ages ago.

So, that leaves the current obsession top 10 - snooker people. Note, I'm not saying snooker players exclusively, simply because I need a way to include a couple of others, too.

Maybe this could be your way to get to know these guys a bit more? Here we go:

1. Mark Selby
If you had asked me prior to the 2024 World Championships whether I would ever put him first on a list like this, I would've laughed in your face. That's how much I used to not like him. Yet, here we are, and he easily means the most to me now. It's not just that I love how he plays - even more, it's the fact that I love how he comes across in interviews, and how he is as a person. Yes, the warmth I feel for him just keeps increasing after meeting him in person several times.

He's an incredible player to watch - and by the way, the "he plays boring and destructive snooker"-crowd need a reality check. But also, he's thoughtful and elegant in interviews, honest about himself and classy about his opponents, even in defeat. And finally, he's always warm and kind to the fans when you meet him at events. It will also never stop feeling surreal to me that he knows me now, and that he says "nice to see you again" when we meet, or asks which event is my next one.

2. Iulian Boiko
Okay, this is the first time I'm doing this, but let's face it: He's my second most loved player now. I've had a soft spot for him ever since he became the (then) youngest professional ever as a 14 year old in 2020. That stint on the pro tour didn't go well for him, as he was simply too young and inexperienced, so I ended up following amateur snooker to the best of my ability for a few years, until he regained his tour card in the spring of 2025. Believe me, I was watching the end of that match - the U21 European Championship final - with tears in my eyes when he made it.

3. Ronnie O'Sullivan
My first favourite in this sport, and forever a player I love. He's amazing to watch when he plays well, but it was his expressiveness that made me take him to heart from the first moment. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and for me that means that I also feel very strongly about him when he plays. When I first got into snooker during the 2014 Masters, there was one thing I didn't want to do: I was not going to adopt the biggest star of the sport, just because everyone else loved him. I like to joke that Ronnie thought "Oh, really? Let's see about that!" before he knocked in 556 consecutive points in the quarter-final vs Ricky Walden - a record that still stands today. My love for snooker started with that match. Over the next few days, I kept researching Ronnie, because he refused to get out of my mind despite my best efforts, learning about his past scandals and consciously looking up "negative" facts to see if I could make him budge. But no - you just can't tell your heart what to do, and I had already given him a piece of mine. He still has that, even though there are others who have more now. But: first love, still a player I love fiercely.

4. Thepchaiya Un-Nooh
It took me a while to really open my heart to him. I've probably only been his fan since he lost to Selby at the British Open in 2024. That was such a beautiful match, seeing the two of them around each other, and paying attention to their completely opposite playstyles. Thepchaiya is apparently nicknamed "F1", because he's as fast as an F1 car - a very fitting nickname. Unfortunately, if you would try to drive an F1 car on a regular road, the first adjective people would use to describe that endeavour would likely be "careless" - which is the very definition of how he plays, too. In full flow, he's great to watch. But then, he can and will also miss carelessly several times in a match, including having missed the final black on a maximum on three different occasions. He sees the irony himself, too, having once made a t-shirt which said "I love #140" on it! On a personal note, it also doesn't hurt that he's probably the most handsome man in snooker - when it comes to looks, he's an absolute beauty.

5. Michael Holt
So, Michael might not be among the best players anymore - he's just inside the top 64 for now, needing to stay there in order to retain his tour card. He is, however, the most endearing and charming man in the sport. He dances around the table if he's playing well, smiling like the Sun. Or, if things aren't going so well, he's just as visibly devastated. It's the way he wears his emotions on his sleeve that has made me love him, and I always want him to do well. The last really good run came at the UK Championship 2024, where he reached the quarter finals after having defeated Jak Jones 6-5 from 2-5 down - believe me, I was screaming in front of my telly.

6. Judd Trump
I like to say that Judd is my "fallback joy" player, because he tends to always go far in tournaments. So, when everyone else I love is out, he is often the one that remains. Even though he hasn't won a tournament for more than a year now - and that sounds absolutely mad if you ask me - he's still the world number one in the rankings. He deserves it, too - at his best he is probably the best player out there right now. Even though he used to have this "playboy"-like image, and sometimes likes to show off fancy cars and holidays in expensive places, he seems a rather soft-spoken person when you see him in interviews, and he has this quietly sharp way of answering questions. In short, he makes it very hard not to love him.

7. Rob Walker
So, there's the reason I couldn't let this list be only about the players. Rob is the MC at some of the major events - apart from being the one who introduces the players when they walk into the arena for their matches, his job is to gear up the crowd before the cameras go on, and also sometimes to do immediate, post-match interviews with players. The thing about Rob is that he's a kind of polarizing person in the snooker fandom - either, people hate him for being an excessive bundle of energy (and for being annoying as commentator when the BBC decide to put him behind the microphone), or they love him for being a bundle of joy and - yes - energy. Even though I tend to be in the first camp with a lot of overly energetic people, I've always had a soft spot for Rob. He's funny and he feels authentic, even though he has admitted that he of course overdoes it a little with his jumping around like something on a string, at times. On a personal note, he's also good-looking to me - I love his smile and his eyes.

8. Stephen Hendry
The big legend of this sport; a seven-time world champion in the '90s. Nowadays he's a commentator - and of course he's one of the best at that, too. He got an invitational tour card a few years ago, something that led me to researching him in detail. I spent quite an amount of hours watching '90s snooker on Youtube, simultaneously enjoying it and feeling gutted that I had no idea about this sport back at that time. Still, I like him both for what I've learned about him as a player, and for what I see of him today. He also has a great Youtube channel, by the way - including some of the best interviews ever done with Ronnie, because their communication is absolutely something else.

9. Zhao Xintong
Okay, filling the last spaces of this list is getting a bit harder from this point onwards, as I've already mentioned the players I love the absolute most. As for Xintong, he became the first Chinese world champion in May 2025, and for that he's definitely worth loving. In fact, I like several of the Chinese players, and it might even be hard for me to put them in order, because I like them more or less on the same level, yet a bit emotionally differently. The reason I'm mentioning Xintong first is simply that he had that amazing run to the world title - and of course the fact there were some very gorgeous moments with Ronnie after their semifinal. I prefer to not think of the match too much, because I didn't enjoy watching Ronnie lose clearly, but I can never forget the warmth and the smiles between them immediately afterwards. Absolute Master and Protégé energy, and very beautiful to see.

10. Neil Robertson
I have a very ambivalent relationship with Neil as a fan - so much that I had to mentally convince myself to even put him on the list. As a person, he's absolutely one of the nicest people around the snooker, happily stopping to talk with fans, remembering us between tournaments, and even giving me a sort of hug on his own once. I really like what I've seen of his personality, and I can absolutely imagine him being someone I'd get along great with - especially considering his "nerdy" interests like gaming and sports.

He used to be one of my liked players when I first got into snooker, and I'll never forget his joy when he became the first person to make 100 century breaks in a season in 2014 - when he made the 100th, during the World Championships that year, he ran around celebrating like a madman, and it made me smile so much. However, in the last couple of years he's developed a nasty habit of beating people I love more a bit too often, meaning I rarely support him these days. But okay, let him have the 10th spot, for old times' sake and for seemingly being a genuinely warm person.