Usain Bolt Is Trying Out For An Australian Soccer Team
NY Times- Usain Bolt, an eight-time Olympic champion and the world’s fastest man, could soon fulfill his dream of becoming a professional soccer player after reaching a deal with Australia’s smallest team, an agent said Tuesday.
Bolt, 31, will participate in a six-week trial starting next month with the Central Coast Mariners, a club outside Sydney. If all goes well, the Jamaican track star is expected to start a season-long deal with the Mariners in October.
Nevertheless, many Australian fans of the game greeted news of Bolt’s turn to soccer with skepticism, labeling it a “disaster,” “ridiculous” and “just farcical.”
“For me, it’s a big deal,” he told the Herald Sun in April. “Everyone feels like I’m just kidding around, just joking, but I’m serious.”
Since retiring from track last year, he has tried out with several European soccer clubs, including Borussia Dortmund in Germany and Stromsgodset in Norway. After the trial in Dortmund, the club’s head coach said the sprinter had more work to do.
Hey Usain, I think I speak for sports fans everywhere when I say… you’re barking up the wrong tree. Wrong sport, old sport! You’re 6’5” and faster than anybody, ever. Somebody hand this guy a helmet and some receiver gloves, line him up as a wideout, and give him the old Forrest Gump “RUN” direction. There isn’t a single safety in the league who can backpedal fast enough to keep a hand on this guy. The only thing that will prevent him from scoring on every single play is whether he can catch wide-open passes.
We often imagine Lebron’s career as a receiver in the NFL. But Usain Bolt as a Packer is pretty fun to picture too. I say Packer because I think Aaron Rodgers is the only QB who won’t underthrow him. You think Eli Manning can possibly hit Usain Bolt in stride? Even if he gave it all he’s got from the moment he caught the snap, Bolt would be running back for that wobbly duck throw.
This soccer move echoes the Jordan baseball experiment. Bolt is to sprinting what MJ was to basketball. Obviously speed is a huge asset in soccer, but you also have to have touch. If he’s making huge runs up the field with the ball, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll have the control to keep the ball at his feet. Which means the best way to use him would be to play the ball out wide and attack from the wings, hoping that he can learn to head the ball or finish crosses. These are tough skills to pick up when you haven’t played since you were a teenager.
He tried out for Borussia Dortmund and didn’t make the team, obviously. That’s one of the top squads in Europe. But this Australian team sounds pretty shitty. Who knows, maybe he’ll bring that Tim Tebow spark to an ailing, off-the-radar sports market.