At the young age of 26 Luca Brecel is still maturing into the sport as he finds himself cast into the spotlight whenever he competes.

Prior to his career as it stands, Brecel had a very successful amateur career which has led to many presumptions about his prosperous future in snooker.

And with these presumptions come along many comparisons and statements about whether he is on track and achieving what outsiders are expecting of him.

Let’s go through Brecel’s accolades and experiences thus far. Brecel played pool with his father whilst on holiday abroad which sparked his interest in the game, and following their return they would both go to the snooker club to practice.

Since going to school in Belgium isn’t compulsory, Brecel was receiving his education at home, which allowed him more practice time on the table. This is when he really started to flourish in the amateur scene with numerous U-16 and U-19 victories from the age of 12.

However, it wasn’t until 2009 where people started to take notice as Brecel won impressively at the U-19 European Championship at the very young age of 14.

This was a couple of years before the event changed to U-21 and included previous winners such as Mark Allen, Michael White and future opponent, Ben Woollaston. Ordinarily, this would have resulted in Brecel earning a two year tour card however, due to age restrictions he had to wait until 16 to do so, in the form of a wildcard for the 2011/12 season.

He has remained on the tour ever since. It wasn’t until late 2012 where Brecel would win his first ranking match at the UK Championship. This was following his notable qualifying success at the previous World Championship as Brecel became the youngest player to qualify for the Crucible, beating Stephen Hendry by a couple of months.

Although, his time there was short-lived as Brecel struggled to qualify, not only for the Crucible, but many other tournaments for the following seasons. But all was not lost.

Brecel was able to gain a bit of steam as he reached the semi-finals of the Welsh Open in 2015 (the furthest he has made it in a tournament; he had only reached a quarter-final once before this) and the final of the German Masters in 2016, where he lost out to Martin Gould 9-5.

He also reached the final of the Shootout that year, living up to his ‘Belgian Bullet’ moniker.

This, along with better performances in the following seasons saw Brecel steadily climb the rankings until he finally reached the Top 16 in 2018.

This rise to the Ranking Promised Land was primarily aided by Brecel’s maiden ranking title at the China Championship in 2017 where he performed well against established winner, Shaun Murphy. Following this victory, Brecel has reached a few more semi-finals, as well as qualify for main stage Crucible.

The closest Brecel has come to a second round match was in 2017 and 2019 where he lost 10-9 on both occasions. Known as the Belgian Bullet due to his fast and powerful pots, Brecel has demonstrated his talent on the table.

So when people criticise Brecel for ‘under-achieving’ at his age, is that a fair statement? Definitely not.

Sure, there are some that can win a ranking event or two at a young age but that isn’t the defining part of a successful career.

We’re witnessing many players that are peaking at a mature age and Brecel still has plenty of time to really knuckle down and focus on his concentration and confidence.

Team Luca Brecel