Topics: Usain Bolt, Athletics, Olympics, Football, Borussia Dortmund
Usain Bolt has spoken about the truth behind his trial with Borussia Dortmund and revealed his biggest mistake in football.
Bolt will go down in history as one of the greatest athletes of the generation after a hugely successful career as a sprinter.
The Jamaican broke the world record for the 100-metre sprint in the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he won the gold medal whilst also winning the 200-metre race.
Bolt defended his titles in London 2012 and also Rio 2016.
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After retiring from athletics, Bolt tried to pursue a career in professional football and was even invited to train with German Bundesliga side Dortmund.
Speaking on The Obi One Podcast, Bolt explained: “For me, it was some training initially because Puma sponsored Dortmund so they were like ‘You know what, come for a few days, hang out, train with the guys and you never know what could come from it’. It was fun.”
Presenter Chris McHardy then said: “And then you went down under, to Central Coast Mariners.”
The Jamaican then replied: “I think that was a mistake. The reason I went was because the media was so much on me, they were like ‘Let’s see what Usain could do’. I knew if I stayed in Europe and I had different teams in France, different levels of leagues. If I stayed in Europe, the media would be on me.
“Some of my friends went ‘Yo, the Australian league, it’s easy, you can come and learn and develop’, I was thinking yeah that’s a nice idea, no one is going to travel that far to come and watch us.”
He continued: “When I got there, training was going well. I even called my coach because to get fit it was different, football training is different, they didn’t do a lot of running like I did to get in shape, I was like ‘I’m never going to get in shape like this’. They do a lot of ball work and then one day a week they run, I called my coach and asked him to send me a programme to get into shape.”
Bolt eventually scored twice for the team during an A-League trial match against Macarthur South West United.
He added: “We played and I scored two goals, I was working and I said two months and I will be ready. I know my plan and I was working with the assistant coach so I knew I was going to be ready to go.”
