3 May 2016 was the night of Mark Selby’s life – becoming a World Champion and watching his boyhood club Leicester City win the Premier League on the same evening.
Snooker’s world No1 goes by the nickname ‘The Jester from Leicester’, making him synonymous with the city of his birth as he passionately supports its football club.
With the Foxes enjoying a rare run to the latter stages of the Emirates FA Cup this season – they host Chelsea in the quarter finals on Sunday – Selby is enthused by their progress and hopes to have to share the limelight again in May.
He said: "Having just potted the final ball to win the World Championship at the Crucible, I left the table and went back to my chair
"One of the guys who sat next to me in the crowd, Brian Wright, is a big Leicester fan and comes to watch a lot of my games.
"He leaned over and told me Leicester had just won the league after Spurs drew with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
"It’s a moment you don’t think could be made any better – but Brian did that!
"He had a Leicester flag with him, so I took that over to the cameras and held it up. That was an amazing feeling and it was easily the best night of my life.
"I was one of the few that kept thinking the wheels would fall off. It was just a fairytale at Christmas and even right up to the last few games, I still thought it would go wrong.
"Leicester winning the league on that night probably overshadowed my achievement in terms of local interest. At the same time, I wouldn’t change it for the world.
"When I won my first World Championship two years earlier, they won the Championship – so took the limelight away from me again!
"My first memories are of being taken to Filbert Street by my dad and just being blown away by the atmosphere.
"I grew up 20 minutes from the city centre, in a suburb called New Parks, and I still live in South Leicester. There was no question who I’d end up supporting.
"Football is a passion, our national passion, and I’ve always followed my hometown club.
"A lot of the older grounds were tighter – better atmospheres than in the new grounds – but it’s been a different story at the King Power recently.
"The atmosphere in the title year was incredible.
"Leicester have always had a good following. Even when we dropped down to League One we were still getting 23,000 or 24,000 at home games.
"The FA Cup hasn’t been that good to us over the years. We’ve had a few quarter finals but the League Cup was the thing in the Martin O’Neill era, getting to Wembley three times in four years.
"When Claude Puel came in, I wasn’t too sure if he was the right man for the job. He did an impressive job at Southampton with limited funds and losing key players.
"At Leicester, he’s found a balance between us playing good football and being organised.
"As a fan, it disappoints me a bit when managers don’t go strong in the cups. League Cups and FA Cups are probably one of our very few chances of silverware as we won’t win the league again.
"Chelsea will go into the game as heavy favourites. The only thing in our favour is that we’re at home. We’re more than capable of winning if we play a full-strength side.
"In terms of my own game, my own form has been quite poor.
"I’m putting in the hard work at home in practise and not converting it to matchday, basically. That’s more frustrating than anything else.
"Hopefully, it will turn the corner in time for the World Championships in a couple of months.
"Leicester seem to like stealing my thunder – I wouldn’t mind if they did by winning The FA Cup in May, though!”
