Ronnie O'Sullivan granted Hong Kong residency as snooker retirement talk gathers pace

Ronnie O'Sullivan has already said that helium wants to play much snooker successful Asia, but the Rocket could soon beryllium launching mode to the Far East permanently

Ronnie O'Sullivan is considering surviving successful Hong Kong permanently.

The snooker great, 48, was precocious granted residency nether the country's Quality Migrant Admission Scheme. O'Sullivan has frequently bemoaned the snooker competitions successful the UK, insisting helium enjoys competing successful the likes of China, Hong Kong and Macau.

He is simply a hugely fashionable personage successful that portion of the world and tends to walk a batch of clip determination competing successful ranking tournaments and financially lucrative accumulation events. It's unclear arsenic to however galore much seasons the West Midlander has successful the billiard world, having already won 7 satellite titles.

Celebrating his residency, O'Sullivan appeared successful a societal media video for the Hong Kong migration office, wherever helium spoke successful extent astir his emotion for the country.

In the video, helium said: "My program successful Hong Kong is, obviously, present to bash immoderate work. But I emotion the food. I emotion to just, unbend present successful Hong Kong.

"Maybe I'm going to play immoderate snooker, conscionable spot immoderate friends maybe. It's conscionable truly bully to beryllium backmost successful Hong Kong again."

At a property league astatine the Macau Snooker Masters, the satellite No.5 made it wide that helium had began his exertion to unrecorded successful Asia respective months previously. He said: “I astir apt bash astir 70 per cent of my enactment successful China and Asia now.

"I person to marque a beingness here. I person to marque a home. If you enactment a agelong clip successful a definite spot you request to marque it arsenic comfy arsenic possible.”

O'Sullivan's marque each astir the satellite is continuing to expand. Earlier this year, helium opened an academy that was named aft him successful Saudi Arabia aft agreeing a immense woody worthy millions.

He's besides pursuing different ventures to turn his marque successful Hong Kong and Macau. In different media appearance, helium said: “I cognize immoderate radical successful Hong Kong and they said: ‘We privation to effort and marque this imaginable for you'.

“Maybe Macau volition beryllium the adjacent 1 due to the fact that evidently I person immoderate friends successful Macau that are saying it’s a bully thought to bash thing successful Macau arsenic well.

“Now that I person the ID card, it volition beryllium overmuch easier to travel and enactment for longer periods. The program is to walk much clip here, and past possibly successful four, five, oregon six years, I’ll determination present for good. I deliberation snooker is simply a precise fashionable athletics successful Asia.”

O'Sullivan volition beryllium successful enactment connected Sunday successful the International Championship successful China. He volition beryllium taking connected the highly-skilled, 2022 women's satellite champion Mink Nutcharut successful a heldover qualifier successful Nanjing.