World snooker champion Luca Brecel takes centre stage this season as he looks to build on Crucible success

Nobody could accuse Luca Brecel of failing to enjoy his new status as world snooker champion.

The Belgian pocketed £500,000 at the Crucible on May 1 and has been traversing the globe ever since in a manner which makes Phileas Fogg look like an agoraphobic. Dubai, Hong Kong, Curacao, the USA… Pretty much the only place Brecel hasn’t seen in the last few months is a snooker table.

But now it’s back to work as the new season comes to life with the first knockout ranking event, the European Masters in Nuremberg. Brecel faces Welsh prospect Jackson Page in the opening round on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s worth reflecting again on the extraordinary manner in which the 28-year-old claimed snooker’s greatest prize. In five previous Crucible appearances he had never won a match at the hallowed Sheffield venue.

He battled past Ricky Walden 10-9, held off the three-times champion Mark Williams 13-11 and, in a bravura display of all-out attack, blitzed Ronnie O’Sullivan 7-0 in their last session to beat the seven times champion 13-10.

All seemed lost when trailing Si Jiahui 14-5 in the semi-finals before a record-breaking recovery saw Brecel win 17-15. Mark Selby threw everything at him in the final to recover from 16-10 down to trail only 16-15, but Brecel held firm, winning the clinching frame of the championship with a century.

His triumph deserves to be seen as one of the most remarkable and impressive the tournament has ever seen. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing the sport’s genuine elder statesman, six times world champion Ray Reardon. At 90, he has seen more snooker than most.

Of Brecel, Reardon said: “He was fantastic, amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player similar to that.”

Brecel will still have congratulations and acclaim ringing in his ears as he gets his new campaign underway in Germany, but like any world champion he also now has a target painted on his back.

Every match will become the focus of attention, centre stage on the main table with his performances and results dissected and discussed. He will find himself much more in demand for media interviews and personal appearances. He will be expected to step up and represent the sport off-table and experience increased strains on his personal time.

How players cope with this new exalted status is often down to their personality. Dennis Taylor was a natural in the limelight following his iconic black ball success in 1985 but Joe Johnson, a humble family man, struggled with the attention he received after winning in 1986.

Since then, fortunes have been decidedly mixed for players who find themselves world champions for the first time, as this table shows:

• Judd Trump (2019/20): 6
• Stephen Hendry (1990/91): 5
• John Parrott (1991/92): 2
• John Higgins (1998/99): 2
• Mark Selby (2014/15): 2
• Mark Williams (2000/01): 1
• Ronnie O’Sullivan (2001/02): 1
• Graeme Dott (2006/07): 1
• Neil Robertson (2010/11): 1
• Ken Doherty (1997/98): 0
• Peter Ebdon (2002/03): 0
• Shaun Murphy (2005/06): 0
• Stuart Bingham (2015/16): 0

Comparing players is not an exact science because the number of ranking tournaments available each season has fluctuated over the years, but Judd Trump’s six title victories in the 2019/20 campaign remains a considerable achievement.

Trump had long been spoken of in terms of becoming world champion. By the time he did, at 29, he seemed ready to shoulder the burdens that come with the standing. More than that, he relished being the top dog and enjoyed trying to justify that status.

Stephen Hendry became the youngest world champion at 21 in 1990 and, like Trump, there was something inevitable about it. When he lost on his Crucible debut as a 17-year-old in 1986 he said, almost in passing, that he expected to win it within the following five years. It may have sounded arrogant, but he did just that.

In the 1990/91 season, Hendry reached six finals from the eight ranking events staged and won five of them. Such dominance is rare, however, for new world champions. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” as Shakespeare put it.

Ronnie O’Sullivan and Mark Williams, who have worn many a crown over the years, won just one ranking title apiece in their year as first-time champion. The likes of Shaun Murphy and Peter Ebdon were trophyless.

He could well buck the general trend judging by his unorthodox attitude at the Crucible, a venue where even the greats have wilted. Beset by pressure in previous years, he did everything he could to remove it this time: staying out late and partying rather than being tucked up in bed early, fretting about upcoming matches.

Psychologically, he was able to tell himself that none of it really mattered. He managed to just play his natural game and play it to the highest sustained standard he ever has.

Doing that for a whole season will be difficult but if Brecel can retain this devil-may-care approach and just enjoy his year as champion he will be very dangerous.

The most immediate concern is the loss of the cue with which he won the world title, which went missing on a trip back from Seattle where Brecel played an exhibition. This is not an ideal way to start any season, let alone one where all eyes are on him.

But in interviews this weekend with Stephen Hendry for his Cue Tips channel and World Snooker Tour, Brecel seems chilled and content, not setting targets or eyeing specific goals, just determined to go with the flow. Despite the holidays and the new Ferrari, he sounds like the same laid-back young man who went to the Crucible largely unfancied for success.

What an exciting time it is for him. As a boy he was obsessed with snooker. Adult life has its distractions, but he knows his star has never been higher in the firmament and that now is the time to cash in.

And if being under scrutiny because you’ve achieved your ambition of becoming world champion is the biggest problem you have, life isn’t that bad.