[Football] The Gay Footballer

[Postman Pat]

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.

Thanks.

If a Palace player came out, I suspect with all of the homophobic stuff they have thrown at us over the years there would be some definite piss taking, but I would hope we would be a little more 'grown-up' about it as a result of the years of hearing it every week, but as we have our fair share of morons no doubt some would take it too far.

 

[Kaiser_Soze]

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/

He can say it the same way that you said its entirely a dressing room issue, with no actual evidence to back it up. The truth is probably somewhere the two view points. As I mentioned earlier, Jamie O'Hara has stated that he played with TWO gay footballers in the PL. The whole dressing room knew and it obviously hasn't been leaked otherwise we would know.

I think your view of dressing rooms and team spirit is wrong too. There is so much we don't hear about that goes on in dressing rooms. There must be bust ups and also pranks and things we never hear about. Imagine if you outed a team mate professionally - I would expect you'd be bounced out the club. None of your team mates would trust you. The manager and chairman would be livid about the uncontrolled can of worms you had just opened.

I would suggest that would be a fairly strong motivation for anyone that knew their team mate was gay, to keep that confidence, without thinking of good old fashioned things like respect and common decency.

 

[Napper]

Jamie O hara lol

The same Jamie O Hara that has been accused many times of being a pathological liar in the press.


It is probably true but bloody Jamie O Hara. That's like saying it must be true as it was in the Daily Star

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

He can say it the same way that you said its entirely a dressing room issue, with no actual evidence to back it up. The truth is probably somewhere the two view points. As I mentioned earlier, Jamie O'Hara has stated that he played with TWO gay footballers in the PL. The whole dressing room knew and it obviously hasn't been leaked otherwise we would know.

I think your view of dressing rooms and team spirit is wrong too. There is so much we don't hear about that goes on in dressing rooms. There must be bust ups and also pranks and things we never hear about. Imagine if you outed a team mate professionally - I would expect you'd be bounced out the club. None of your team mates would trust you. The manager and chairman would be livid about the uncontrolled can of worms you had just opened.

I would suggest that would be a fairly strong motivation for anyone that knew their team mate was gay, to keep that confidence, without thinking of good old fashioned things like respect and common decency.

Good points, well made. I hope you're right.....and you probably are. I missed the O'Hara quote*.

Edit: and the dismissal of it* in the post above. Oh well.

 

[Frankie]

 

[dazzer6666]

I suspect once one player comes out there will be a few others (after a while - perhaps waiting to see what reaction the first one gets) - even if this one is fake it's surely only a matter of time. The terrace songsmiths will have a fine line to tread between breaking the law/getting banned, and producing something humourous..........but it won't be ignored. A few of the knuckle-draggers from, most likely, the usual suspect clubs will get banned before it becomes fully accepted as part of the game for sure.

Whilst statistically we can talk about numbers of likely gay footballers, that's not really representative if you take professional football as a subset of the total population. Would guess the true number is tiny by comparison to expected % of overall population, in the same way that other professions might well have a much higher %...............

 

[Triggaaar]

If a Palace player came out, I suspect with all of the homophobic stuff they have thrown at us over the years there would be some definite piss taking, but I would hope we would be a little more 'grown-up' about it as a result of the years of hearing it every week, but as we have our fair share of morons no doubt some would take it too far.

We will indeed have some knuckle draggers who are offensive, but it would of course be discussed on here and I'm sure we'd show a great deal of support for them and we wouldn't tolerate those who were abusive.

 

[Triggaaar]

Imagine if you outed a team mate professionally - I would expect you'd be bounced out the club. None of your team mates would trust you. The manager and chairman would be livid about the uncontrolled can of worms you had just opened.

I would suggest that would be a fairly strong motivation for anyone that knew their team mate was gay, to keep that confidence, without thinking of good old fashioned things like respect and common decency.

But what about when someone doesn't like their gay teammate for whatever reason, and one of them changes club? It wouldn't be a surprise to find information leaked in that scenario.

 

[highflyer]

Good points, well made. I hope you're right.....and you probably are. I missed the O'Hara quote*.

Edit: and the dismissal of it* in the post above. Oh well.

Not just that quote.I have read a number of times about male gay professional footballer players being open with team mates about their sexuality but choosing not to go fully public. And I think (but obviously can't prove) that it is true. I am 99% certain about at least one ex -pro who did not hide their life from team mates, but is not publicly 'out'.

 

[Postman Pat]

Not just that quote.I have read a number of times about male gay professional footballer players being open with team mates about their sexuality but choosing not to go fully public. And I think (but obviously can't prove) that it is true. I am 99% certain about at least one ex -pro who did not hide their life from team mates, but is not publicly 'out'.

Former Premier League footballer Carl Hoefkens has revealed that he knows of at least two gay professional players in the UK.

The 39-year-old also said that he played with a third gay player during his career in Belgium, saying that in all of the instances the men in question did not hide their sexuality from their teammates.

“I played alongside three gay footballers, including one who was a genuinely big name,” Hoefkens told Belgian publication De Zondag.

“They did not hide who they were in the dressing room. One was at Club Brugge, and the other two were in England.”

He added: “I won’t name names as I respect their requests.

“One of them would even arrive at training with his boyfriend. They asked us to keep quiet to the outside world, but don’t ask me why.”

The defender has previously played for Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion in the UK.

 

[Napper]

sounds like this is all a wind up reading online. Reading fan if you believe the rumour

 

[Baldseagull]

This little teaser is quite interesting in that it will have supporters of most clubs in the Championship wondering if it is one of theirs, and hopefully coming to the conclusion that it does not matter.

 

[spring hall convert]

I don't think players should have to or need to declare their sexuality

Nor do I but the other option as things stand is to actively hide it. There is no middle ground here, press being what it is in this country.

 

[Hiney]

Please let it be a Leeds player

 

[stewart12]

I'd say the worse homophobic abuse aimed at us Brighton fans I've experienced has been from Palace (obviously), Leeds, Millwall (shouting 'Aids scum' at like an old lady in the train queue ffs) and Bristol City. So kinda hope it's one of them.

anyway moving on- I do agree with others that a player's sexuality is no ones business than their own- however football does have an negative relationship with homophobia and to be honest if I was a young gay footballer I don't think I'd feel at all comfortable being myself- for example it must be hard constantly having to hide being in a relationship. You see straight footballers all the time post pictures of themselves with their partners. It has to be hard for a gay footballer and their fella knowing that you've got to watch everything you post (and I'm afraid we do live in a social media age so these things are important).

If one player can be bold and decide to be the torch bearer then great- it'll hopefully make things easier for future generations of gay footballers and they'll probably find that beyond the initial flurry of interest, most people aren't that bothered

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Didn’t Thomas ‘Der Hammer’ Hitzelsperger come out once he’d retired?

 

[Gwylan]

There's no openly gay cricketers either.

Yes there is, Somerset's Steve Davies (and an England international too)

He wasn't the first out cricketer though - Sussex's Alan Hansford came out some years earlier (but only after he'd quit the game)

 

[rippleman]

Just musing why there are so many openly gay women in professional sport (particularly cricket & football) and yet no male gay footballers or cricketers.

Why do women feel that it's not a problem to be "out & proud" whilst men hide it away? I really don't know the answer.

(Worthing Pride this Saturday 13 July - Parade starts at noon)

 

[wolfie]

Can we judge him when we see his WAB ?

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Can we judge him when we see his WAB ?

HAB shirley?!