'Roger Federer is an artist, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic machines': Ronnie O'Sullivan on GOAT and Lionel Messi

Snooker legend Ronnie O'Sullivan has compared himself to Lionel Messi and Roger Federer while saying that playing the way he does makes it harder to succeed. The 46-year-old, who last triumphed at the Crucible in 2020, has always thrilled and entertained fans with his dashing style of play and propensity to take huge risks at key stages of matches. Ad/> Having won six World Championship titles despite refusing to err from the brand of snooker that has garnered so many dedicated fans makes his achievements all the more remarkable, as he has noted.

World ChampionshipExclusive — 'He's a better player than me' — O'Sullivan hails 'unbelievable talent'YESTERDAY AT 07:10 O'Sullivan has used the examples of fellow sporting heroes Messi and Federer to make the point that playing in a flamboyant and attractive way can be successful at the very highest level, albeit doing so does perhaps risk making it harder to achieve consistent glory. «I have played a brand of snooker that is very difficult to play as an individual sportsman,» O'Sullivan told Eurosport in an interview ahead of the World Championship. «Jimmy White played that brand and maybe it cost him winning the World Championship.

I was able to stay true to that style of snooker and still win it six times. It is not easy. »For someone like Lionel Messi, playing in a football team, I suppose he is just told to do what he is good at and they have other people covering for him where maybe he doesn't want to run around and chase the ball.