Shaun Murphy discussed how he spent his World Snooker Championship prize money.
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| Shaun Murphy spoke about how he spent his World Snooker Championship prize money (Image: George Wood/Getty Images) |
Shaun Murphy knew how he wanted to spend his prize money after winning the 2005 World Snooker Championship. The 43-year-old came agonisingly close to becoming a two-time winner, losing 18-17 to Wu Yize in the final, finishing runner-up for a fourth time.
Murphy was the same age as Wu is now when he rose from relative obscurity to take snooker’s top prize more than two decades ago. ‘The Magician’ triumphed 18-16 over Matthew Stevens in the final, having defeated the likes of Steve Davis and John Higgins during his run at the Crucible. It was a whirlwind experience for a player who had previously been ranked No.48 in the world. However, despite his surprise success, Murphy had a clear plan for his £250,000 prize money and buying a Mercedes was top of his list.
Shortly after his World Snooker Championship victory, The Telegraph reported that Murphy was in the process of buying a new £37,000 Mercedes. It had long been his dream to purchase the car, as he explained at the time.
"You know, I always had three goals as a kid growing up,” Murphy told The Telegraph in 2005, “To be world No 1, world champion and own a Mercedes. And at 22, I've got two out of three. Now I'm going to strive to be world No 1 and when I get there…”
A year on from becoming world champion, Murphy explained that his winnings had also allowed him to buy a house as an investment. Speaking to The Times, Murphy detailed his role in the house renovations: “I’m no good at the delicate stuff like choosing furnishings, but I’m good at smashing walls with a sledgehammer, like sending the cue ball into a pack of reds.”
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| Murphy clinched the world championship in 2005 (Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images) |
Winning the world championship was the first of Murphy’s 13 ranking titles so far. Two decades on, he proved he remained at the top of the sport by winning the British Open and the Masters in 2025.
He has earned an eye-watering £7.1million in prize money during his career, according to CueTracker. Remarkably, Murphy was given £200,000 for reaching the world final this year, which is just £50,000 less than he received for becoming champion in 2005.
After congratulating Wu on his win, Murphy told BBC Sport: "I hate being right - I said sometime earlier in the season when we had a great game out in China somewhere, I won that one but I came out afterwards and said that he would be world champion one day.
It's just a real shame that it was today, but I couldn't have given it any more, I couldn't have tried harder. I played the best shots I could have played and I didn't get my chance. I couldn't do any more than that."
- Jake Bayliss
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