Wanderers coach Markus Babbel says Usain Bolt won’t make the cut in A-League
MARKUS Babbel has frankly written off Usain Bolt’s quest for an A-League contract, declaring it a fantastic publicity exercise but not to be taken seriously.
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MARKUS Babbel has frankly written off Usain Bolt’s quest for an A-League contract, declaring it a fantastic publicity exercise but not to be taken seriously.
The straight-talking Western Sydney coach first revealed his views to Swiss newspaper Blick, contending Bolt’s professed love of football is “not enough in 100 years” for the Central Coast triallist to become professionally proficient.
He elaborated at Wanderers training on Friday, two days before Sunday’s season-opener against Perth.
“This is my opinion, and if I see the coach from Mariners yesterday I think he gets nerved about this story,” Babbel said.
“It’s not about Usain Bolt, he’s a fantastic person, a legend. But it’s so difficult to change to this sport. It’s different movements, you have to learn it as a child on.
“If it’s possible, many other people would do it. For me it’s not working. For the A-League it was top, but I can’t believe he will play in the A-League.”
Babbel ventured that Bolt’s presence as a triallist might also feel strange for members of the Mariners squad.
“Because (as a player) I’m doing this now for 20-25 years, then someone is coming who’s never played professional football before and thinks he’s good like me,” he said.
“This is not working. This is fantastic for Mariners because all over the world they were talking about you, also for the A-League it was good, for the PR.
“But it will not work, I can’t believe.”
Babbel is on the eve of his own tough task of overseeing his first league match in charge, away from home and against a side now led by Wanderers foundation coach Tony Popovic.
And with veteran forward Mark Bridge (calf) centre-back Patrick Ziegler (knee) and Kosta Grozos (knee) sidelined, he pointed out the Wanderers appear up against it on paper.
“Some experts were saying difficult season for us, now we play against one of the best teams in the league — maybe they win the league,” he said.
“So normally we have no chance, but we will try.
“They have a fantastic coach. He was very successful here and won the (Asia) Champions League. So he’s a top, top manager, top coach, and he has a lot of experience.
“Also you see it’s a team with big experience. You can see they are very tough, very hard in the game, physically in top shape, so we have to work against that.
“We also have some abilities, but the most important thing is to show it on Sunday.”
With Grozos out for up to six weeks after sustaining an injury with the Young Socceroos, Rashid Mahazi or Jordan O’Doherty appear most likely to partner Keanu Baccus in the midfield.
Left-back Raul Llorente also suffered a knock in that semi-final loss to Sydney FC but trained fully yesterday and is expected to travel pending a final fitness test today.
But Babbel said he has no further recruitment plans.
“At the moment we can’t do anything, this is a money thing,” he said. “I’m happy with the players because they are working hard, they try to do what we want from them.
“But this is a process. We work hard on this, and we’ll see what happens on Sunday.”
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