Gay footballer hits out at need to stay in closet

Published on 13/09/2012 00:00

GERMAN fans are trying to guess the identity of a Bundesliga player who is gay but says he has to remain anonymous to keep playing top-flight football.

The player fears attacks from fans and even other footballers if he outs himself. “I would no longer be safe if my sexuality was to be made public,” he wrote in the magazine Fluter.

“I don’t know whether I will be able to take the constant tension between the model heterosexual player and the possible discovery until the end of my career,” he said, saying mistakes during matches would automatically be blamed on his lifestyle.

“In the situation in a stadium or after the game, any tiny thing within the group would be made into a big deal.”

He said women friends act as “beards” at public events to disguise his sexuality. His last gay relationship, he wrote, was “poisoned” by the secrecy, although he claimed a handful of other players know about his gay life.

German Football Association president Theo Zwanziger this year made a call for gay players to stand up and be counted. But the anonymous man went on: “It’s all fine to say when you don’t have to go out into the stadium on the next match day. A bit of normality would make me happy. Simply to be able to go with a future partner to a restaurant in public; a dream.”