MELBOURNE: Superstar sprinter Usain Bolt is adamant he can become a professional footballer despite his trial with an Australian club ending, insisting on Saturday: “I still have it”.

The eight-time Olympic champion’s ‘indefinite’ try-out period with the A-League’s Central Coast Mariners collapsed on Friday after contract talks failed.

The club reportedly offered him only a fraction of the Aus$3 million (US$2.1 million) his managers were seeking, and the outside sponsors needed to make the deal viable could not be found.

“It’s sad that it didn’t work out,” the Jamaican 100m and 200m world record holder told Herald Sun at the Derby Day horse races in Melbourne, where he arrived in a suit, sunglasses and with a gold-handled cane. “But we parted on good terms, and that’s a good thing.”

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2018