Usain Bolt remains on trial with the Central Coast Mariners after rejecting a two-year contract to help boost Maltese club Valletta FC’s chances of reaching the Champions League.
The 32-year-old scored twice in a trial match for the Australian side on Saturday, drawing attention across the globe to the Jamaican sprinter’s bid to earn a deal in professional soccer. Bolt’s agent has suggested his client is receiving plenty of offers aside from Valletta’s approach, so may bide his time in making a decision.
“There is a lot of interest in Usain playing football,” Ricky Simms told ESPN’s Tom Hamilton. “We regularly receive similar approaches. I can confirm Usain does not wish to pursue this opportunity in Malta.”
Valletta CEO and managing director Ghasston Slimen responded by saying an “offer is always on the table” for Bolt to join.
Here it is, @usainbolt, the footballer, scores his maiden Mariners goal. What a moment! Don’t think limits! ?? #SWSvCCM #CCMFC ?@FOXFOOTBALL pic.twitter.com/X7zrqmrYCZ
— Central Coast Mariners (@CCMariners) October 12, 2018
The A-League season begins in Australia on Friday, with the Mariners beginning their campaign two days later at Brisbane Roar. Bolt is ineligible for that fixture, and likely all the Mariners’ matches until Jan. 3, 2019, when the league’s next registration period opens. Central Coast CEO Shaun Mielekamp has been noncommittal on Bolt’s fixture in Gosford, stating “it’s too early to tell” whether the eight-time Olympic gold medalist will clinch a contract off the back of his long-term trial.
Bolt, a keen Manchester United supporter, has previously trained with the Bundesliga’s Borussia Dortmund and Norwegian outfit Stromsgodset, and has been a regular on the charity game circuit. His spell in Australia is the first time he has determinedly pursued a professional spell in the game, and Mielekamp insisted in July that his training with the Central Coast Mariners is “not a stunt or gimmick.”
Bolt’s involvement in warm-up games has drawn thousands of attendees, when in the past those events only drew a few hundred spectators.
RENTON, Wash. — Paul Allen’s love was basketball, and he delved into professional football out of loyalty to his hometown Seattle.
In the wake of his death Monday from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Allen’s ownership of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers and NFL’s Seattle Seahawks has come into focus because of questions about how the franchises will move forward in his absence.
No one is providing many details yet about the succession plans for Allen’s franchise holdings. His primary franchises were the Blazers and Seahawks, although he also owned a small stake in Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders.
“Paul thoughtfully addressed how the many institutions he founded and supported would continue after he was no longer able to lead them. This isn’t the time to deal in those specifics as we focus on Paul’s family,” according to a statement from Allen’s company, Vulcan Inc. “We will continue to work on furthering Paul’s mission and the projects he entrusted to us. There are no changes imminent for Vulcan, the teams, the research institutes or museums.”
For now, Allen’s teams will continue to be overseen by Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, an arm of the company he created. His sister, Jody Allen, and executive Bert Kolde were the other members of the Seahawks’ board of directors with Allen. Jody Allen may take a more prominent role with the NFL franchise going forward.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s time to be engaging in that conversation. We’re more into the conversation about recognizing what took place and how to respect Paul and his desires and all of that,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Tuesday. “There’s plenty of time to talk about all that stuff. It’s not even a factor in our minds. I understand the interest but there will be plenty of time.
“Nothing is changing. Paul wouldn’t want us to do anything different than what we’re doing, which is to go for it and to represent it every way we can until you can’t. And we’re going to go for it just in that fashion.”
A similar message was being relayed in Portland, where Trail Blazers general manager Neil Olshey and Vulcan Sports and Entertainment CEO Chris McGowan spoke about Allen. The Trail Blazers are dealing with the death of Allen just a couple of days before beginning the regular season at home against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
“At this point we’re just dealing with the death and we don’t have any imminent announcements,” McGowan said. “At an appropriate time I’m sure we’ll come and talk with everyone about what potentially could happen, but right now we’re just dealing with the grief.”
Olshey said his final phone conversation with Allen was in early October, with the owner asking if the Blazers GM was watching that night’s preseason games.
“He wanted to talk basketball,” Olshey said. “One of the things that is really unique about Paul is that everything was bifurcated. … If he wanted to talk hoops, he talked hoops. If he wanted to talk music, he called Mick Jagger. If he wanted to talk football, he called Pete Carroll. Who else gets that?”
Lorenzo Insigne finished off a slick move in the 90th minute to give Napoli a late 1-0 win over Liverpool on Wednesday.
Insigne’s effort capped a dominant performance against the misfiring Reds and vaulted the host into first in Group C with four points.
Liverpool also lost Naby Keita to an apparent back injury early in the first half. The bustling Guinean midfielder, who started his sixth match for his new club Wednesday, required a stretcher to leave the pitch.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are now three matches without a win after claiming victory in each of their first seven fixtures of the campaign.
Napoli monopolized the majority of the chances at the Stadio San Paolo, while Liverpool tried to preserve a point. The visitors posed little, if any, attacking threat, failing to register a single shot on target in a Champions League match for the first time since February 2006.
Liverpool were forced to scramble just to stay in the match, with Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk each denying Insigne in the second half. And they were left thanking the gods when Dries Mertens rattled a close-range shot off the crossbar in the 82nd minute.
But Insigne gave the host a deserving win in the final stages of regular time, stretching to get a foot onto Jose Callejon’s excellent pass before celebrating with Napoli’s rabid supporters.
GREEN BAY, Wis. — A week after missing five kicks, Mason Crosby kicked the game winner for the Green Bay Packers.
Yes, that Mason Crosby.
The same one who missed four field goals and an extra point in a loss at Detroit. This time, Crosby kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired to give the Packers a 33-30 comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football at Lambeau Field.
It was Crosby’s fourth field goal of the night. He was good from 29, 39 and 51 yards before the game winner. He also made all three of his extra points for a perfect night.
“It’s very apropos,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “What he went through last week and the team to stick with him, and the guys to kind of wrap our arms around him and encourage him the way we do for our teammates was great. And then he responded. The crowd was very encouraging. I was trying to figure out at first if it was kind of a sarcastic cheer, but I felt like it was a pretty heartfelt encouragement after he made four field goals and three extra points. Obviously very happy afterwards and we were very happy for him.”
Eight days earlier in Detroit, Crosby was surrounded by cameras in the visitor’s locker room after the Packers’ loss to the Lions and he said: “I don’t get this much attention unless it’s really bad or extremely good.”
The crowd around him was even bigger in the victorious home locker room at Lambeau Field.
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Mason Crosby expresses his thoughts on his game-winning field goal and how it feels to bounce back after missing five kicks against the Lions.
“Gosh, just so thankful for the Packers organization and my teammates just sticking with me knowing I’ve bounced back a lot in my career,” said Crosby, a 12-year veteran. “I had no days like last week, but this is a special one. This is one of my better days. And to be able to go out there and perform the way I did after last week [was great]. Did a lot of soul-searching this week and made sure I really locked in on my preparation, and it paid off.”
Crosby said he appreciated Rodgers and the offense making the game winner a “chip shot,” as he called it.
He said the more nerve-racking kick was the extra point to tie the game at 30 after Rodgers hit Davante Adams for a 16-yard touchdown with 1:55 left.
“The extra point to tie the game was the one that I was a little more amped up for, making sure I knocked that through,” Crosby said. “But that last one was just kind of muscle memory. The snap came, I felt like I was pretty quick on it and everything was perfect. The protection was great. I felt guys kind of diving in front of me right after, but I was in the zone. It’s special whenever it all comes together that way, and I’m just so thankful for the week of work I had and the guys, how much they never wavered from how they felt about me. To be able to come through like this after a week like I had last week is pretty special.”
An interception by Kevin King with 1:07 left gave the ball back to Rodgers. An illegal contact penalty on 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman wiped out a third-down sack that would’ve killed the drive. Rodgers scrambled on his gimpy left knee for 21 yards, hit Adams for 8 and then rookie Equanimeous St. Brown made a stellar sideline catch for 19 yards, followed by another one to Adams for 19 to set up the game winner.
“That last drive there was unreal,” Crosby said. “The chemistry that this locker room has, everyone is always bringing each other up, trying to make sure that we have each other’s back. Like I said, the guys never wavered from how they felt about me as a man and as a football player. They knew that I worked really hard this week to make sure that I would come through if I was called on this week for this game. Like I said, I’m tired. I’m glad we have the bye week and [I’m] ready to keep moving forward.”
The Packers enter their bye week at 3-2-1 and have four of their next five on the road, beginning at the Rams and at the Patriots. But at least they’re on an emotional high thanks in part to Crosby.
“That’s exactly the way you want to see it end,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “Frankly I wish he didn’t need to kick as many field goals as he did tonight, but yeah definitely, that was a big bounce-back game for Mason and really for our football team. We needed that win.”
And Crosby needed those kicks.
“This week was a grind,” said Crosby, who has made 83.4 percent of his field goals since his career-worst year of 63.6 percent in 2012. “It was one of the tougher weeks of my career just making sure that I didn’t overreact, overanalyze everything. I really did a great job of just locking in and making sure I had good tempo and I kind of just flushed last week and made sure that if I was called upon again this week I was going to come through. Honestly, I had a 51-yarder tonight. When I’m going out there, I was just thankful for another opportunity to hit a kick and felt just really solid with my performance.”
