By Elliott West
“To pay for everything, I combine a job with snooker. When I’m not playing a tournament anywhere in the world, I work as a carpenter. So there’s nothing in the house of training and your level drops. Then of course you find yourself in a negative spiral.”
Bjorn Haneveer
Introduction
In my continued look at snooker in Belgium, it is important to include all the top Belgian snooker players that have or who are gracing the green baize. One player that springs to mind is Bjorn Haneveer. Born in 1976 and now 45, Haneveer is from Turnhout in Belgium. A professional on the main tour from 1993-1997, 1998-2006 and most recently 2009-2011, Bjorn reach his highest ranking of 53th in the 2004/05 season and his best performances were two last 16 finishes.
Career
Bjorn Haneveer is best known for his dominance of snooker in his own country, holding an impressive record of being a six-times Belgian snooker champion, the last title in 2017. He has won the Dutch Open fives times, runner-up twice, the Swiss Open in 2003, the 3 Kings Open in 2009 and was a runner-up in the 2010 Vienna Open where he lost to Stephen Lee 4-5.
Bjorn was also a fine amateur player, winning the Belgian Amateur Championship on six occasions and runner-up in 1999, 2010 and 2011 and the EBSA European Snooker Championship twice. He was also runner-up in 2000. He was also runner-up in the 1997 IBSF World Under-21 Championship, losing to Hong Kong’s Marco Fu 7-11 in the final.
His proudest moment to date was when he won a gold medal at the World Games in Akita in 2001 and a bronze medal in Duisburg in 2005. A player who made a 147 break during the 2003 European at Bad Wildungen in Germany and another during the 2007 Belgian Championship. Haneveer was definitely the most successful snooker player to come out of Belgium prior to Luca Brecel and it was sad to see him turn zen-professional in 2011 due to excessive expenses on the main tour and a shoulder injury.
Life after Snooker
Bjorn had many strings to his bow and his main one was his carpentry business. Outside this, he also takes time to use his knowledge and experience to commentate on Belgian Eurosport for snooker coverage and it seems that this combination of jobs, had made him more money than when he was a snooker professional. However, he does appear on television in front of the cameras every so often, mainly homegrown tournaments.
