Football
ESPN staff 6y

Usain Bolt: Manchester United chances will depend on Borussia Dortmund trial

Usain Bolt has told ESPN that his two-day trial at Borussia Dortmund this week will decide whether he can make it in professional football and said he has already asked Jose Mourinho for a chance at Manchester United.

Bolt, the eight-time Olympic gold medallist and world-record holder in the 100 metres, will travel to Dortmund on Thursday and participate in training with the Bundesliga club on Friday.

"That will determine for me, personally, if I continue or if I say, 'You know what? I'm probably not good enough,'" Bolt told ESPN at the Hublot Match of Friendship in Basel, Switzerland. "It's what happens in the next two days."

Bolt, 31, retired from athletics in August following the IAAF World Championships in London. He trained with South African side Mamelodi Sundowns in January and will participate in a charity match at Old Trafford in June.

"For me, I'm fast, so it's definitely kind of all about using my speed," Bolt said when asked about his playing style. "It's something that I've used over the years, actually playing with my friends and stuff, so it's something that I'm just looking forward to and we'll see what happens."

As for which position he would like to play, Bolt said that he sees himself playing out wide.

"I would like to play on the wing, on the left side," Bolt said. "That would be my favourite position to play, but most of the people always say I would probably play up top, so we'll see where it goes."

A huge United fan, Bolt said that he is hoping the trial goes well enough that he can approach Mourinho about joining the club.

"I've definitely asked him for a spot on the team, but as I said, I just want to wait until after the trials to really push and to really pressure," Bolt said. "It's something I said to him, and he said, 'If you're serious, we'll see what happens,' so let's see what happens [this week]."

Bolt was a guest of United at the 2011 Champions League final, in which they lost to Barcelona, and said then that he would like to join the club as a player once his sprinting career had ended.

United are 16 points back of rivals Manchester City, the runaway Premier League leaders, and they advanced to the semifinals of the FA Cup on Saturday, four days after being knocked out of the Champions League by Sevilla.

"It's not a great season [for United], but it's not as bad now," Bolt said. "I think we've improved a lot from last season. We've really done much better. We've played much better, so it's all about improvement and getting better players and getting the players to play better together."

And while Bolt said that he's a big fan of United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and he enjoys watching Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, who spent six years with United, he admitted his favourite player to watch is Neymar, calling the Paris Saint-Germain forward and Brazil international "a great winger" who has "proven over the years that he's one of the best."

Still, when it comes to the World Cup in Russia this summer, he acknowledged it won't be Brazil that he's supporting.

"The current thing right now to say would be to say Brazil, but I'm an Argentina fan," Bolt said. "Yeah. I support [Lionel] Messi when it comes to Argentina, yeah."

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