Snooker’s next Hong Kong resident? 4-time world champion Mark Selby is applying: sources

English former world No 1 could join Quality Migrant Admission Scheme and acquire Hong Kong ID card, Post is told

Reading Time:2 minutes

Mark Selby, pictured celebrating his 2017 world title, is expected to play in the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong in March. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:30pm, 23 Jan 2025Updated: 5:49pm, 23 Jan 2025

Four-time snooker world champion Mark Selby is considering following in the footsteps of Ronnie O’Sullivan and Judd Trump by becoming a Hong Kong resident, the Post has learned.

Sources said the Englishman was mulling taking up residency under the city’s Quality Migrant Admission Scheme, and an announcement could come within weeks.

According to people who talked to the Post, a player who was in the process of acquiring a Hong Kong identity card was an “Englishman with multiple world titles”.

Previously, Vincent Law Wing-chung, chairman of the Billiard Sports Council of Hong Kong China, said in a radio interview that a third player had begun the process to join the scheme, revealing that the applicant was ranked “inside the top 10”.

Mark Selby visits Hong Kong in 2022 with Ronnie O’Sullivan (right) and Neil Robertson. Photo: HKBSCC

Presently ranked No 5 in the world, Selby, 41, claimed world titles in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021, a tally bettered by only four men in the modern era. He has enjoyed eight stints in the No 1 spot, most notably an uninterrupted spell lasting four years until March 2019.