Ronnie O’Sullivan and David Beckham reveal their secret bromance

Ronnie O’Sullivan is extra snug round purple balls than purple carpets. 

‘If I’d have seemed on the contract and it mentioned you have to do a premiere, I’d have in all probability gone, “That’s me out”,’ says the seven-time world snooker champion. ‘It’s not my form of factor. I’m not excellent with folks being good to me.’

Tonight in London’s West End, there are many folks being simply that – and no another so than David Beckham. The former England captain occurs to be the manager director of O’Sullivan’s compelling new Amazon Prime documentary, The Edge of Everything. 

And, as they share a stage collectively for a Q&A following an unique screening of the movie on the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, we be taught that Beckham is likely one of the Rocket’s greatest followers.

‘When I wasn’t taking part in soccer, I used to be taking part in snooker,’ says Beckham, who is similar age as O’Sullivan and grew up near the snooker star’s Chigwell dwelling. ‘I used to be all the time a fan of Ronnie and I used to be capable of spend slightly time with him over time.

‘One of my favorite nights as a Manchester United participant was once we’d performed in London, we went out for a few beers and I ended up again at Ronnie’s home. His mum was making a cup of tea for us and we had a number of frames. That was one in every of my favorite nights as a result of I bought to spend a number of hours with Ronnie and bought to know him.’

It seems that evening was not a one-off. Sitting with Mail Sport in a seventh-floor suite of a five-star Leicester Square resort, O’Sullivan shares his personal story about his secret bromance with Beckham. ‘We met one another in Charlie Chan’s (the Walthamstow nightclub) and we have been simply chatting away,’ he recollects.

‘He mentioned, ‘Come as much as Manchester’, so I went up there and stayed with him for 2 or three days. The fame was off the dimensions. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it in my life. I’m probably not reduce out for that form of factor. I run for the exit.’

He can not run for the exit tonight, nonetheless. O’Sullivan is the star of the present and he has attracted fairly a crowd, together with Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, who options in his movie.

Beckham – whose manufacturing firm Studio 99 made the documentary – is joined by his ex-England team-mates Alan Shearer and Ian Wright. Lioness Alessia Russo can also be right here, as are England rugby stars Owen Farrell and Manu Tuilagi. From snooker, Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White and Judd Trump are all in attendance.

‘F****** loopy, innit?’ O’Sullivan says to Hendry as he surveys the good and the great who’ve gathered right here only for him.

Sam Blair, the documentary’s director, can also be mingling with company within the room. ‘Ronnie was an absolute dream to work with,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘It was a once-in-a-lifetime expertise. I do not know if anybody else may do what Ronnie has. Not solely how open he was, however performing miracles on digital camera. It was mind-boggling.’

The miracle Blair refers to was O’Sullivan with the ability to win his record-equalling seventh world title on the Crucible final yr, despite the fact that he had cameras in his dressing room and was mic’d up throughout matches. For O’Sullivan, although, the additional intrusion was merely motivation to supply a fairytale end for the movie.

‘Once I’d let the cameras in, I wasn’t going to crumble and provides a half-hearted show,’ he says. ‘I knew I needed to give 100 per cent as a result of I knew I used to be going to have to look at it again and I did not wish to defraud the general public. 

‘It made me win that World Championship. I do not suppose I might have gained it with out having that form of strain on me to carry out.’

That victory, although, got here at a price. One of essentially the most highly effective components of the documentary is when O’Sullivan seems to be on the verge of a panic assault in his dressing room on the second day of the ultimate in opposition to Trump. ‘I really feel like I wish to cry,’ he tells his psychiatrist, Dr Steve Peters. ‘I really feel like I do not wish to face it.’

Reflecting on that second now, O’Sullivan says: ‘I bought stage fright and I’ve solely ever had that twice on the Crucible. The first time was the ultimate session of my first ultimate in opposition to John Higgins. It’s fairly scary.’

The Edge of Everything, then, shouldn’t be a snug look ahead to O’Sullivan. As properly as his Crucible meltdown, it covers his dad’s life sentence for homicide and his personal issues with drink and medicines.

‘It wasn’t an ideal expertise watching it again for the primary time,’ he says. ‘It was fairly harrowing. It actually affected me. I phoned up Sam and mentioned, ‘I do not suppose I’m going to play snooker anymore mate. I’m undecided I like what I see. I may have a a lot nicer life’.

‘Visually, you would see I used to be going by way of it lots of instances. I had a very particular, shut relationship with my dad. So for him to not be there, I simply thought half of me had been sliced out and brought away. It was simply horrible.’

O’Sullivan insists he has now come to phrases with what he watched and reckons he may play on for one more 10 years, though ‘5 would in all probability be sufficient’. While he pulled out of final week’s Champion of Champions occasion in Bolton as a result of he felt ‘drained and careworn’, he’ll return to motion on the UK Championship in York, which begins this weekend.

The sport’s schedule, although, is one thing of a sizzling matter at current, with World Snooker at struggle with stars for making an attempt to skip tour tournaments to play in mega-money exhibitions in China.

‘If I can not go and do what I must do, which is play so much in China, I will not ever play once more,’ says a resolute Rocket. ‘We’re at a sort of crossroads now.’

Next yr, although, all roads will lead again to the Crucible – the scene of such astonishing footage within the documentary. But, having simply been reminded of torture he went by way of to say his seventh world title, O’Sullivan questions whether or not he has what it takes to dig deep and win No8.

‘I’m certain I’ll pitch up and play once more,’ he provides. ‘But whether or not I’ve bought one other one in me, I do not suppose I’ve, if I’m being brutally sincere with you. I do not suppose I’ve bought one other one in me.

‘I do not know if the juice is definitely worth the squeeze. But I believed that in 2011 and I’ve gained a number of since then. It’s unusual how issues can end up.’