Usain Bolt opens up on 'personal challenge' to make it as a professional footballer

ByThe Editorial Team

Updated 13/10/2018 at 17:15 GMT

Usain Bolt says his goal to become a professional footballer is a 'personal challenge' after scoring twice for Central Coast Mariners on Friday.

The current 100m and 200m world-record holder is on trial at Central Coast and bidding to earn a full-time contract with the A-League side.

Bolt's brace against Macarthur South West United made the headlines worldwide, and the 32-year-old is now focused on fulfilling his next goal of becoming a professional footballer.

In an interview with Stellar Magazine, he said:

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It's something I've always wanted to do. I said to myself, 'If I can get the opportunity to do it, then do it.'

"Because for me that's a challenge – and when I get a challenge, it re-energises me. I don't know where I'm going to go so I really can't set a goal for myself until this first year [is over].

"After this first year I can say, 'I feel I can do better if I can train harder or work more on my skills'. Or I can say, 'This is not going to work'. This season is just a test, fail or pass.

"I'm just here to do my best, to learn as much as possible and try to improve as quickly as possible to get to a level. It's my personal challenge."

In an extensive interview, Bolt also admitted he decided to call time on his athletics career last year because he had fallen out of love with the sport.

Bolt celebrates scoring the first of his brace for the Mariners on Friday

Image credit: Getty Images

The Jamaican added: "Towards the end, I didn't enjoy it like I did when I was starting out and winning my first gold and second gold.

"I knew that if I had to do [the Olympics] for a fourth time, I wouldn't have got there because I would wake up in the morning and decide I didn't want to go to training.

"There were times at the end where I'd ask myself, when I'm lying on the ground dying, like, 'Why am I still doing this?' When I started questioning myself like that, I knew, this is it. I need to stop."

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