As Usain Bolt continues to improve, is it time to take his A-League dream seriously?

HE scored two goals on Friday night and continues to improve at a rate of knots. It is time to take Usain Bolt’s dream of playing senior football in the A-League seriously? DAVID DAVUTOVIC looks at where the Olympic champion is at.

Will Usain Bolt make the cut at Central Coast? Picture: Brett Costello

IF Usain Bolt improves at the same rate he has done since his first training session with Central Coast Mariners, senior A-League appearances are not beyond the realms.

His debut training session on August 21, and his first friendly 10 days later indicated that Bolt was too far off the pace to be a realistic shot of earning a contract.

Friday night’s display was a huge improvement, against stronger opposition.

READ USAIN BOLT’S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW IN STELLAR MAGAZINE TOMORROW

TWO GOALS: RECAP USAIN BOLT’S PERFORMANCE

Read the exclusive interview with Usain Bolt in Stellar Magazine.

Usain Bolt celebrates with teammates after scoring his first goal. Picture: AFP Photo

It should not come as a complete surprise, for one thing that people underestimate is Bolt’s training application to become an eight-time Olympic champion.

“Listen, the work is behind the scenes. Competition is the easy part. Behind the scenes is where everything is done to get to that one race that you need to run,’’ he said in the documentary Usain Bolt: The Fastest Man Alive.

“A lot of people just see you run and they say ‘it looks so easy, effortless’. But before it gets to that point, it’s hard work — day in day out sacrifice.”

While many people just see the flashy side of Bolt, who does enjoy parties and champagne, he is applying himself in Sydney by doing a host of “extras”, ranging from skills work to conditioning with the Mariners coaching staff.

His sharper skills and bigger motor (sprinting training is completely different to football conditioning) were on display when he comfortably ran out 75 minutes.

Beyond the two goals — the first of which was taken superbly while the second was aided by calamitous defending — there were enough “football instincts” in that performance to indicate that he will give this “experiment” a red hot shake.

Usain Bolt celebrates after scoring a goal. Picture: AFP Photo

He clearly has some football miles in his locker from his youth, while he has kept playing at every opportunity during his sprinting career, often leaning on local contacts to arrange small-sided games in various parts of the world, including in Melbourne in 2012 where a game was arranged with a few hours’ notice.

Bolt, 32, will keep training with the Mariners, who will give him until January before making a call. The challenge will be trying to expose him to match conditions.

There is undoubtedly a marketing element to this, but with the world watching on, Bolt just showed why he is a world champion sportsman and why it would be foolish to write him off.

“It was a big deal. First proper match, first start scoring two goals, it was a good feeling because this is what I’m working towards,’’ Bolt told Fox Sports.

“I will try to improve myself and try to get better and I’m on the way to doing that.”

This story may yet have some legs in it.

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