A championship footballer is “to come out as gay in the near future.”
With two LGBTQ-friendly football/soccer teams making it to the finals at the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the US team with out player Megan Rapinoe ultimately winning, there’s a lot of attention on LGBTQ players in the sport. And perhaps because of that, one other player may be gearing up to come out.
A Twitter account under the name of “The Gay Footballer” has been stating that it is run by a champion player who’s on his way out of the closet.
“I’ve got a meeting this afternoon with my manager and chairman. They don’t know it yet, but I will be coming out to them at this meeting. The time is right. The time is now,” wrote the account on July 6th.
https://twitter.com/FootballerGay/status/1147467642980196355?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1147467642980196355&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.towleroad.com%2F2019%2F07%2Fgay-footballer-3%2F
The day before, the anonymous user shared that he had come out to his family to an “amazing” response.
“Today I came out to my family. I have hid my sexuality for far too long. My family responded amazingly well, and other than a few close friends, they were the first to know.”
https://twitter.com/FootballerGay/status/1147260710466064385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1147260710466064385&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.towleroad.com%2F2019%2F07%2Fgay-footballer-3%2F
But how did the meeting with his manager and club chairman go? Well, the account later released a statement expressing their reaction.
“This afternoon I requested a meeting with both my manager and the club chairman,” he wrote on Twitter.
“At this meeting I revealed to both gentlemen that I am a homosexual man, I explained that I had only yesterday come out to my family.
“I sought advice from both men regarding the fact that I not only want to, but will, come out publicly as a proud, confident gay professional footballer.
“As it currently stands, once I have taken the time to give full consideration to how and when I am to make it public, a press conference will be organised by the club, with invitations to be made in due course to both local and national press.”
https://twitter.com/FootballerGay/status/1147530880254205952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1147530880254205952&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.towleroad.com%2F2019%2F07%2Fgay-footballer-3%2F
The account user then shared that he will be coming out in the near future. As he wrote on Twitter:
“I’m a professional footballer, playing for a club in the @SkyBetChamp. I will be revealing my identity soon, but I am a proud gay man, hoping to break the mould. I am under the age of 23, and today I came out to my family. Soon, I will come out publicly.”
But who could this player be? We guess we’ll see soon.
https://twitter.com/FootballerGay/status/1147823178959527936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1147823178959527936&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.towleroad.com%2F2019%2F07%2Fgay-footballer-3%2F