Eden Sharav

Sharav was born in 1992 in Moshav Mishmar Ayalon, Israel, to an Israeli father and a Scottish mother.[1][3] He lived there until age three, when his parents divorced and he moved with his mother to Scotland.[1]

In Scotland, Sharav took up snooker and recorded promising results in amateur competition. He came to be regarded as one of the country's promising young players before earning a place on the professional tour.[1][3]

Sharav qualified for the professional snooker tour in 2015 while representing Scotland, initially securing a two-year place. After ending the 2016–17 season ranked 83rd in the world, he retained his tour status for another two years through his position on the one-year ranking list.[3]

In 2017, Sharav received formal approval from the international snooker federation to represent Israel. He held Israeli citizenship, had previously expressed his wish to compete as an Israeli, and entered discussions with the Israeli Snooker Association before the change was approved. His switch gave Israel its first representative on the professional snooker tour.[3]

At that point, Sharav's best professional-tour result was an appearance in the third round of the Shoot Out. He had not progressed through World Championship qualifying or played at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, although he had defeated Ronnie O'Sullivan in a minor event outside the official tour and later received praise from O'Sullivan on a radio program.[3]

Sharav represented Israel at the 2017 World Cup of Snooker in Wuxi, China, alongside four-time Israeli champion Shahar Ruberg. It was Israel's first appearance in the tournament, a 24-team invitational in which each team fielded two players selected according to world rankings. Sharav was ranked 104th in the world at the time.[5]

His most successful professional tournament came at the 2018 Northern Ireland Open, which he entered ranked 77th. Sharav defeated Lee Yuan, Michael White, and Joe Swail in the opening rounds before beating two-time world runner-up Ali Carter 4–3 in the last 16 and former world champion Peter Ebdon 5–4 in the quarterfinal. Judd Trump defeated him 6–3 in the semifinal, ending a five-match winning run. Sharav received £20,000 for the result, which was described at the time as the best of his career.[1]

By 2023, Sharav was described as a former professional and was competing at the amateur level. He and Ruberg represented Israel at the European amateur team championship, advancing from a group containing Belgium, France, and Ukraine. They defeated Malta 2 and Poland 3 by 4–0 scores in the knockout rounds before meeting Poland's first team in the final. Israel led 4–1 but lost 5–4; in the deciding doubles frame, the Israeli pair made a 30-point break before Poland responded with a 72-point break to secure the title.[2]

Sharav holds a pioneering place in Israeli snooker as the first player to compete under the Israeli flag on the professional tour. A 2026 report still identified him as the only player to have done so, distinguishing his route—being raised in Scotland, qualifying through Scotland, and later changing his sporting representation—from efforts to produce a professional player developed in Israel.[3][4]

His semifinal appearance at the 2018 Northern Ireland Open provided his leading professional result, while Israel's silver medal at the 2023 European amateur team championship extended his international representation of the country beyond his professional-tour career.[1][2]

Sharav's matches with Iranian players attracted attention because of the wider political barriers affecting competition between Iranian and Israeli athletes. In 2021, he played Soheil Vahedi at the WST Pro Series, with Vahedi winning 2–1. The Jerusalem Post characterized it as a rare encounter in light of the established avoidance of Israeli opponents by Iranian athletes.[6]

In 2019, Iranian professional Hossein Vafaei was absent from two scheduled matches against Sharav and received technical losses on both occasions. Ynet discussed the incidents amid allegations that Iranian athletes were boycotting Israeli opponents. WPBSA chairman Jason Ferguson said, however, that there was no official evidence that Vafaei's withdrawals were politically motivated and attributed them to family matters.[7]