And they are all recognisable names.
Amal – Justin Fashanu’s niece – runs a charity where 5 famous footballers are being counselled at the moment, about their homosexuality and their “living in the closet”. This is what we can read in her interview to The Sun.
She said: “No one wants to be the first. In their minds these guys are trapped, ashamed. They think society won’t accept it so instead they live their lives in secret. It’s sad that this has to happen. But they would be a trailblazer.”
Her uncle Justin (the first openly gay UK footballer) committed suicide in 1998 after being accused of sexual assault of a 17-year-old boy – an accusation that was never proven true, and her dad admitted feeling “guilty every day” after he payed his brother not to come-out.
Amal also added: “The media would treat it differently now and I don’t think there would be a problem with fans. One in ten men are gay so the idea there aren’t lots playing football doesn’t add up.”
We do hope that all those gay footballers will shortly come out and will be leading examples for others and that this stupid homophobic stigma in football and in sport in general will soon disappear.
