🇵🇱 Michał Szubarczyk

Michał Szubarczyk was born on 12 January 2011 in Lublin, Poland — a country with no snooker tradition to speak of. His mother works in a bank; his father, Kamil, ran his own business before scaling back to part-time work to serve as his son's coach and manager. Father and son had watched snooker together on television, and when Michał's interest caught fire they began playing at a local Lublin club when he was six years old. From ages six to twelve he was coached by Mateusz Nowak, an assistant head coach of the European Billiards and Snooker Association. To balance training with school, Szubarczyk switched to home education.

The results came absurdly early. At twelve he won the Polish national championships at both under-18 and under-21 level, and compiled his first maximum 147 break in practice. In January 2024, aged thirteen, he reached the quarter-finals of the senior Polish championship. He also collected the Polish six-red snooker title, the Polish under-16 pool title and the Polish junior Snooker Shoot Out crown — a clean sweep across cue sports.

In August 2024 in Bengaluru, India, Szubarczyk beat Germany's Alexander Widau 5-1 in the final of the IBSF World Under-21 Snooker Championship, becoming, at thirteen, the youngest winner in the tournament's history. March 2025 brought an extraordinary month: he won the EBSA European Under-16 and Under-18 titles back to back, then reached the final of the senior European Championship, beating Harvey Chandler along the way before losing to former professional Liam Highfield. Because Highfield had already regained his tour place by another route, the nomination for a two-year World Snooker Tour card passed to Szubarczyk — making him, at fourteen, the youngest professional player in snooker history.

His rookie professional season was a baptism of fire. His first pro match, at the 2025 Wuhan Open qualifiers, was a 5-0 defeat to former world champion Shaun Murphy. But the teenager adapted fast: at the 2025 Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters he recorded his first professional wins and reached the third round before falling to another former world champion, Stuart Bingham. He qualified for the Xi'an Grand Prix by beating world number 43 Martin O'Donnell in a deciding frame.

In November 2025 Szubarczyk won the IBSF World Snooker Championship — the sport's biggest amateur title — beating Ali Alobaidli 5-2 in the final to become its second-youngest winner ever, behind only Yan Bingtao. Days later he beat six-time world finalist Jimmy White 6-2 in UK Championship qualifying, and against Noppon Saengkham he made his first century break on tour, a 106. By December 2025 he had climbed to a ranking of 98 in the world.

Then came Sheffield. On the opening day of the 2026 World Championship qualifiers, Szubarczyk raced to a 3-0 lead over Ng On Yee with breaks of 69, 52 and 74, absorbed her fightback, and held his nerve to win 10-7. 'I feel very proud,' he told World Snooker Tour afterwards, adding that he dreams of becoming the youngest player ever to reach the Crucible — a record held by Luca Brecel, who qualified in 2012 aged 17 years and 45 days. With another season still to run on his first tour card, the boy from Lublin has time on his side.