Olympic sprinting icon Usain Bolt has registered to play for a south Manchester Sunday league football team. According to the Football Association (FA), the eight-time gold medalist and 100m and 200m world record holder, now 40, is one of the galaxy of stars who have signed up to play for Wythenshawe Vets.
The side was put together and is managed by former Manchester City and Republic of Ireland star Stephen Ireland.
Star-Studded Squad
Former Manchester City players Joleon Lescott and Nedum Onuoha; former Manchester United title winner Antonio Valencia, Leicester City Premier League winner Marc Albrighton, ex-England striker Emile Heskey; and former Newcastle forward Papiss Cisse are among the stars who once played at the very top of the game who have appeared for the side, and who play in the Premier Division of the Cheshire Veterans Football League.
Bolt was not included on the 2026/27 squad list released by the club, which is affiliated to Wythenshawe FC, earlier this month and no official announcement has been made. However, the FA has him listed as one of their registered players on their website. The Manchester Evening News has contacted the club for comment.
Bolt's Football Career
After retiring from athletics in 2017, football fanatic and huge Manchester United fan Bolt pursued a career in professional football. He scored two goals during a friendly for the Australian A-League team Central Coast Mariners in 2018 and signed a professional contract with the Southern Hemisphere club, before leaving the team just eight weeks later, ultimately hanging up his boots in early 2019.
Other former stars signed up for the current campaign include Maynor Figueroa, Jefferson Montero, Kieran Westwood, Paul McShane, Adrian Mariappa, Oumar Niasse and Martyn Waghorn.
Club's Perspective
Wythenshawe FC owner Carl Barratt told the Manchester Evening News earlier this year: "Without financial aids, a club cannot exist, and I want to make sure that my managers, my players, my volunteers, everyone gets as much support as possible. We rely on funding, we rely on sponsorship, we rely on everything else."
"We happened to come across a Vets team which is helping make that a little bit easier, so suddenly people know who we are. When I go to people talking about sponsorship for this season, next season, I'm saying Wythenshawe and yes, they know we've got a successful women's team, know we've got a successful men's team, but they know ultimately at the moment we have a very popular Vets team. Ultimately, brand awareness is something which is key across many sort of businesses and what this does is it makes it an easy sell to them, the Vets team. But likewise, they're just another team to me. One that I can utilise for the greater good of the club."
Ireland previously told Sky Sports: "We're all retired and it's nice to get together to continue to play football, keep fit and also from the mental health side of things. A lot of lads can feel a bit stranded and alone when they come out of football. We all live in the same area so help each other."
