Editorial (August 22, 2018) – Usain Bolt is on a mission: he wants to play football at a professional level.
The eight-time Olympic gold medalist has participated in his first training session with the Central Coast Mariners FC of the Australian A-League.
Usain Bolt wants to prove people wrong playing football
It seems Jamaica’s most decorated athlete of all times has something to prove.
Bolt found in football another motivation for his life after dominating the Olympic Games for three straight times as he went gold in Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016 to become a worldwide icon
But now Bolt is on a different path, for some reason he has football as his new lovely sport.
After retiring from sprinting in 2017, Bolt holds both World Championship and Olympic records in the 100 meters event. In The 2012 Olympics he ran 9.63 seconds and in the WC Berlin 2009, he made an unthinkable 9.58 seconds run to set the fastest ever recorded.
After Track and Field
Bolt’s life has been one of the most accolades in history. He has everything. However, he wishes to excel in football as well.
Bolt tried to make a huge impact in his professional football career jumping into Borussia Dortmund training camp, though, he’s still not ready to the highest level and was cut from the team.
Maybe at 32 years of age is not the best time to become a professional player, but the Olympic icon has all the physical conditions to show up.
If Bolt performs well in Australia, it is possible some team from a higher level league consider to sign him.
Strengths
The best skill so far is his quickness, Bolt could fit best as a winger.
The Jamaican might be the player who runs in the counterattacks as he’s still one on the fastest man alive. His teammates could find him while he takes advantage of his fastness.
Bolt can also create opportunities in the run and make key passes in the rapid offensive plays.
Weakness
The former sprinting World Champion is way beyond the speed of a regular player, he can succeed due to his quickness even though he has not developed the basic football skills.
Bolt has not shown if he can pass, defend, or even shoot well. That’s the reason Dortmund left him out and decided to not go ahead with the experiment.
If the Jamaican cannot make long passes, crosses, tackles and lacks a decent shoot, he won’t be good anywhere.
Nevertheless, it is just an issue, Bolt only wants to enjoy his new journey and do the best to please him and demonstrate people wrong.
Central Coast Mariners will face off Central Coast Select on Friday, August 31, in a pre-season trial at 7:00 pm EST in what will be Bolt’s first chance to exhibit his football talents to the world.
