Ever since he retired from professional sprinting, Usain Bolt has been doing things on his terms. His terms seem to involve a lot of soccer. The world record-holding Jamaican has said in the past he'd like to take a crack at Premier League and play with Manchester United, and he even trained with Bundesliga's Borussia Dortmund earlier in the year. A little over a week ago, he started training with the Australian A-League club the Central Coast Mariners, and he made his professional soccer debut with them on Friday.
A moment in sporting history is made. @usainbolt, the footballer, steps onto the pitch in Yellow & Navy. ⚡️ #CCMFC #ALeague pic.twitter.com/3j9ZuEvTsf
— Central Coast Mariners (@CCMariners) August 31, 2018
He got off to a bit of a rocky start.
Usain Bolt's first touch in a Central Coast Mariners shirt didn't go quite to plan, then. pic.twitter.com/so5SzPQuQ9
— FourFourTwo ⚽️ (@FourFourTwo) August 31, 2018
Bolt is not going to end up playing for Jose Mourinho with first touches like that.
To be fair to Bolt, it's tough to acclimate to a new club. It's even tougher trying to control a pass in a dead sprint, which is something we take for granted out of professional soccer players. And imagine passing to him. Trying to put a ball on that stride would be next to impossible.
Bolt is one of the best athletes in the world, but even for the best there's a learning curve. It's fair to say that he has a lot of work to do before he's playing in England.
