LGBTQI+ footballers

Good for him. :slightly_smiling_face: Brave decision to be the first one in the modern English game to come out.

Good luck to him

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I suppose a championship level club won’t have following in Africa, Middle East and Asia

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It’s about time. Hopefully it’ll become the norm for gay footballers to not even have to do this in the long run. Won’t happen without some brave blokes sticking their necks out first sadly. Good luck to whoever it is.

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What happened to those two that were supposed to come out together about 2 years back? Hopefully this guy gets the support he needs to feel like he’s able to go through with this.

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Unfortunately, he’ll get a torrent of abuse from the stands but takes courage to come out.

Hopefully won’t even be a thing in 5-10 years, but this would be a big first step.

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Yeah I’m surprised that aren’t more footballers that haven’t come out or been outed yet.

Then I guess the abuse they’ll get shouldn’t make it too surprising.

Well given racism is still a big issue in football (after decades of trying to combat it) I think we’re probably many many decades away from a sport where equality isn’t such a big concern unfortunately.

The battle for the LGBT community in the sport is only just beginning and it’s going to be a long, sad and tough road before we can whittle down the BS that comes from the stands and the players.

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Is he the first one in the modern game?

I can’t think of others but presumed it must have happened by now. Is it not the case that this is just the highest profile league player to come out to date?

Hitzlsperger came out post retirement, I think Robbie Rogers in the MLS was also retired at the time of coming out, and I do believe there’s one player in the MLS who is openly gay. Think his name might be Collins? I think I saw it said that he’s the only active gay player playing at an “elite level”, so I guess by that they mean top flight.

I don’t think anyone in England from the top three or four flights have ever come out during their playing career, feel like we’d remember that.

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Justin Fashanu did in 1990. His career had been on a downward curve for some time by that stage already and he played for a series of lower level clubs in the UK and abroad after that.

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Didn’t he also end up committing suicide?

Yeah. Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu story is on Netflix if anyone wants to watch. His life took a bit of a downward turn – injury, sexual abuse allegations etc. It’s a sad story. Even his own brother, John, went on national radio to claim Justin wasn’t gay, just attention seeking. And John also tried to pay him not to come out. And this was only 20 years ago. I think we have a long way to go before it’s accepted, which is totally ridiculous – it shouldn’t have to be a big deal.

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It’s really fucking sad that documentary.

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Hope it works out well for him. At a lower level it could work. In the PL I dunno, as everytime Arsenal’s twitter account posts something gay related, there’s always a lot of abuse from backwards people, so :woman_shrugging:t2:

In the PL it would be easier IMO. The media coverage would be huge and I think clubs would fall over themselves to be seen to be condemning homophobia in the stands, and in social media well I doubt they’d get it any worse than any other prominent gay celebrity.

In the championship I think this stuff will just go unnoticed sadly.

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If I remember this correctly I’m sure a guy called Matty Taylor came out as gay a few years ago? played for Portsmouth and a few other clubs, always scoring long range goals

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looks as if he’s still playing at 37

Remember him having an excellent left foot.

Yeah he scored a few ridiculous long range blooters. One on the half volley from almost half way for Portsmouth I think.

Him and Morten Gamst Pedersen from Blackburn

Robbie Rogers came out at the time he left Leeds, but played four seasons for the L.A. Galaxy after coming out. The current MLS player is Collin Martin of Minnesota United, who came out last year.