Homophobia in football, and the lack of openly gay footballers

In October 2021, Australian footballer Josh Cavallo came out as gay. Cavallo became the first openly gay footballer since February 2013, when Columbus Crew's Robbie Rogers came out. After the American's retirement in 2017, the men's football scene was without an open member of the LGBTQ+ community for four years. Cavallo's bravery paved the way for 17-year-old Jake Daniels, a Blackpool youth product who came out as gay in May 2022. With hundreds of thousands of professional players worldwide, the fact of the matter remains that more LGBTQ+ members of the footballing community remain in the closet, unwilling to come out.

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