Gay players ‘living in silence’, says Cavallo after coming out
Australian footballer Josh Cavallo has been praised across sport after becoming the only current male top-flight player in the world to come out as gay.
Cavallo, who plays for A-league Adelaide United, said he knows there are other players “living in silence” as he made the announcement on social media. “I’m a footballer and I’m gay,” the 21-year-old declared on Twitter, prompting supportive comments from leading figures in the game.
Cavallo, who has represented Australia at under-20 level, said he no longer wanted to keep his sexuality a secret. “All I want to do is play football and be treated equally,” he said.
“Trying to perform at the best of your ability and to live this double life, it’s exhausting, it’s something I don’t want anyone to experience.”
Only a few players have come out as gay, and mostly after retiring. It is 23 years since the suicide of Justin Fashanu, the first top-flight English footballer to come out as gay while still playing. In 2013, former Leeds winger Robbie Rogers came out, but said remaining in the game proved “impossible” as a result.
A charity set up by Fashanu’s family last year released a letter from an unnamed gay player in the Premier
League, which highlighted how little football’s culture had changed. The player said that his situation was “an absolute nightmare”, adding: “I feel trapped, and my fear is that disclosing the truth about what I am will only make things worse.”
Cavallo described the support from the club, team-mates and officials as “immense”, saying that he had been worried that coming out might negatively impact his career, saying that he knew there were other players “living in silence”.
“I want to help change this, to show that everyone is welcome in the game of football,” he wrote.