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[Football] The Gay Footballer



El Presidente

The ONLY Gay in Brighton
Helpful Moderator
Jul 5, 2003
40,000
Pattknull med Haksprut
The OP is talking about a male coming out. There seems to be a clear difference between the willingness of men and women to come out. Is this purely down to the profile of the sport or is there a bigger reason behind it?

Different demographics between fan bases of men’s and women’s football perhaps?
 








Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,103
Faversham
The OP is talking about a male coming out. There seems to be a clear difference between the willingness of men and women to come out. Is this purely down to the profile of the sport or is there a bigger reason behind it?

Fear.

Anyway, here is the thing. For LGBTQ footyfans it will rightly be a moment. For most of the rest of us it will be TFFT.

As for 'fear', the sad thing is there must be a lot of shouty homophobes in dressing rooms, because in real life a sufficient majority of us are beyond all that, so why hide? Anyway, homophobic cockwomblry is illegal. Dressing room is my theory, then.

Like others on this thread I'm still suspicious it is a baiting session though. Hope not, obvs.
 


Beanstalk

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2017
3,029
London
Fantastic news. It's all about representation really, just under a quarter of people between 18-24 identify as LGBTQ now, and accordingly, there really shouldn't be 0 gay players in the UK leagues. Statistically, the reality is obvious. There must be gay footballers, it is only a matter of time until that becomes an open reality.

Think we are at a stage now, particularly within the confines of the "less edgy" Premier League, where football (as a whole) is more than ready to support people of all backgrounds and orientations within the game. Fingers crossed this opens the gates to more footballers being openly comfortable with who they are and lets people know both on and off the pitch that they don't have to hide that any more.
 




Lady Whistledown

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 7, 2003
47,630
This has all the hallmarks of one of those attention-seeking accounts which claim to be in-the-know football agents, with all the latest transfer exclusives, that somehow people seem to lap up. The ones that are just clickbait, desperately seeking followers for either commercial or ego purposes.

Neither the language nor the tone convince me. The use of "homosexual" instead of just "gay". The very formal tone. The dramatic "I WILL BE MAKING AN ANNOUNCEMENT!".

I believe when the first male professional footballer comes out, it'll be done quietly and without warning, arranged in advance with whatever newspaper the player thinks will provide the most sensitive telling of the story. Not like this :rolleyes:
 


Denis

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2013
608
Portslade
This has all the hallmarks of one of those attention-seeking accounts which claim to be in-the-know football agents, with all the latest transfer exclusives, that somehow people seem to lap up. The ones that are just clickbait, desperately seeking followers for either commercial or ego purposes.

Neither the language nor the tone convince me. The use of "homosexual" instead of just "gay". The very formal tone. The dramatic "I WILL BE MAKING AN ANNOUNCEMENT!".

I believe when the first male professional footballer comes out, it'll be done quietly and without warning, arranged in advance with whatever newspaper the player thinks will provide the most sensitive telling of the story. Not like this :


My exact thoughts too.
 


Ninja Elephant

Doctor Elephant
Feb 16, 2009
18,855
It's funny - I played at a tournament in Leicester recently. There was a big awards event at a pub in the evening and all "spouses" were invited up on the improvised stage. Only women. In a tournament featuring 16 teams of an average of 8 players, not one single male spouse up on stage? Over 100 players in the tournament, obviously a good number were gay but none openly. There was a gay player (or more, statistically!) on my team who is out to those of us who know him well, but not to the world generally. He captains an 11 a side team on a saturday, who don't know he's gay. I suspect they do, and just don't care - but he doesn't tell them, despite having played for them for years. Their Whatsapp group might be one of the reasons why, in this case!
 




Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,103
Faversham
This has all the hallmarks of one of those attention-seeking accounts which claim to be in-the-know football agents, with all the latest transfer exclusives, that somehow people seem to lap up. The ones that are just clickbait, desperately seeking followers for either commercial or ego purposes.

Neither the language nor the tone convince me. The use of "homosexual" instead of just "gay". The very formal tone. The dramatic "I WILL BE MAKING AN ANNOUNCEMENT!".

I believe when the first male professional footballer comes out, it'll be done quietly and without warning, arranged in advance with whatever newspaper the player thinks will provide the most sensitive telling of the story. Not like this :rolleyes:

And....end of thread. I like to think I write well, but.... :bowdown:
 


Dick Head

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jan 3, 2010
13,890
Quaxxann
Sorry to ruin your hard work, but he says he is under the age of 23...

I hope it's a Leeds player, not sure how they will cope.

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Guy Fawkes

The voice of treason
Sep 29, 2007
8,295
Fear.

Anyway, here is the thing. For LGBTQ footyfans it will rightly be a moment. For most of the rest of us it will be TFFT.

As for 'fear', the sad thing is there must be a lot of shouty homophobes in dressing rooms, because in real life a sufficient majority of us are beyond all that, so why hide? Anyway, homophobic cockwomblry is illegal. Dressing room is my theory, then.

Like others on this thread I'm still suspicious it is a baiting session though. Hope not, obvs.

It's usually not got anything to do with the dressing room as you've suggested

There have been gay footballers whose teammates have known that they were gay, and the gay player(s) have wanted to go public in the past, (to the media, etc,) but were strongly advised not to by publicists, etc... so decided against it

btw - wasn't there has already been an openly gay male footballer, playing somewhere like Sweden?
 
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Klaas

I've changed this
Nov 1, 2017
2,663
This has all the hallmarks of one of those attention-seeking accounts which claim to be in-the-know football agents, with all the latest transfer exclusives, that somehow people seem to lap up. The ones that are just clickbait, desperately seeking followers for either commercial or ego purposes.

Neither the language nor the tone convince me. The use of "homosexual" instead of just "gay". The very formal tone. The dramatic "I WILL BE MAKING AN ANNOUNCEMENT!".

I believe when the first male professional footballer comes out, it'll be done quietly and without warning, arranged in advance with whatever newspaper the player thinks will provide the most sensitive telling of the story. Not like this :rolleyes:

Didn't read quite right to me either.
 


Beanstalk

Well-known member
Apr 5, 2017
3,029
London
It's usually not got anything to do with the dressing room as you've suggested

There have been gay footballers whose teammates have known that they were gay, and the gay player(s) have wanted to go public in the past, (to the media, etc,) but were strongly advised not to by publicists, etc... so decided against it

btw - wasn't there has already been an openly gay male footballer, playing somewhere like Sweden?

Robbie Rogers came out just after leaving dirty Leeds. Apart from that there haven't been any players who have come out whilst playing. Rogers actually came out in conjunction with his retirement from the game before returning to the game and playing for LA Galaxy.

Technically, in the modern era, there hasn't been a player who came out as gay whilst playing.
 






N17

New member
Jun 21, 2011
557
Good luck to him. I'm a middle (old) aged straight bloke and i really couldn't give a toss who another consenting adult wants to have sex with.

If a Spurs player revealed themselves as homosexual they would get the same level of support from me as any other of our players.

Hope it all works out well for him.
 


Postman Pat

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2007
6,972
Coldean
Good luck to him. I'm a middle (old) aged straight bloke and i really couldn't give a toss who another consenting adult wants to have sex with.

If a Spurs player revealed themselves as homosexual they would get the same level of support from me as any other of our players.

If it was an Arsenal player, how do you think the Spurs fans would react - Both on social media and during the NLD?
 


Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,103
Faversham
If it was an Arsenal player, how do you think the Spurs fans would react - Both on social media and during the NLD?

There are laws. My guess is that there may be a flurry of prosecutions if the internets hoard off ppf-shoutalikees decide to weigh in under such circumstances. It won't be nice but bring it on, I say.
 


Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,103
Faversham
It's usually not got anything to do with the dressing room as you've suggested

There have been gay footballers whose teammates have known that they were gay, and the gay player(s) have wanted to go public in the past, (to the media, etc,) but were strongly advised not to by publicists, etc... so decided against it

btw - wasn't there has already been an openly gay male footballer, playing somewhere like Sweden?

I don't know how you can say that unless you know personally all the gay players, in and out (they are all in, btw - 'out' means publicly, and there are none in the UK's professional game). Obviously I can't say, either, that there are no players who are out to their team mates. But any reasonable consideration will tell you there must be few or none. Someone would talk.

Also, as I have hinted, and will elaborate a little more here, footballers are not typically Guardian-reading liberals. In fact, the conspicuous Guardian reading liberals of the not too distant past (e.g. Le Saux, who isn't gay) have been bullied on and off the pitch, even by the likes of otherwise decent blokes like Robbie Fowler (see below). Can you imagine how some of the more 'traditional working class' footballers of the last 20 years would have dealt with a 'poof' in the ranks? Get real!

So, perhaps there have been improvements in the last five years. But the idea that every club's gay players (statistically ALL clubs must have gay players) are out to their team mates, all of whom are cool about it AND not speaking to the media, or even their mates about it is the typical situation now? Pull the other one.

I actually feel that if a few players came out there would be no bother (the 8% of respondents in the poll below who would stop watching games can go and **** off). But it is undoubtably fear that is stopping it. IMV, of course. I could be wrong.

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2019/...ning-for-gay-players-to-come-out-in-football/
 




N17

New member
Jun 21, 2011
557
If it was an Arsenal player, how do you think the Spurs fans would react - Both on social media and during the NLD?

Spurs fans in general would, i imagine take the piss and come up with an inappropriate song. But we do that for all their players, the fact they were gay would just be a side product i imagine.

I am older (& hopefully a bit wiser now) so although i have sung songs which were very offensive in the past (i started going regularly in the 70s when we didnt know better) i try and stick to 'pro-Spurs' chants and avoid those that may be offensive these days.
 


Napper

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
24,452
Sussex
seems all a bit "look at me , look at me" , don't think it's true personally.

As mentioned above , if it was a Leeds or Boro etc , I doubt the fans would care if the player was doing well for the team. It would more be the rivals of that team that would get some mileage out of it ( and unlikely the mileage would be terrace songs due to banning's )
 


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