Collective coming out: German professional football prepares for a strong signal

After that first ‘coming out day’, every 17th of the month should be the day that athletes come out, on what will be called ‘Sports Free Day’. They receive guidance and can come out of the closet and exchange stories on a secure online platform.

The Sports Free project is an initiative of Marcus Urban. In 2007, he was one of the first professional football players worldwide to come out of the closet, after the Englishman Justin Fashanu in 1990. According to him, a group of professional football players communicate ‘intensively’ among themselves to stand up for colleagues on May 17 who have doubts about coming out. out. Urban says this to German media. ‘Why should I wait any longer. What exactly?’, he says, the players wonder.

According to him, every athlete, anywhere in the world, should feel free to tell his or her story. “Football players are just a small building block in that story.” Yet since 52-time international Thomas Hitzlsperger in 2014, no footballer in Germany has dared to step forward.

The football players are not alone. Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin, SC Freiburg and VfB Stuttgart are supporting the project with donations, among other things.

So far, the number of professional football players who have outed is still very limited. Last year the Czech international Jakub Jankto did it, and a year earlier the then 17-year-old English talent Jake Daniels.

Rainbow band

The fact that homosexuality is still a taboo in football was evident, among other things, at the World Cup in Qatar at the end of 2022. At that time, FIFA banned teams from wearing the so-called ‘One Love’ band, with the rainbow colors on it as a signal of diversity and inclusion. . A dozen countries had set up a campaign to support the LGBTQ+ community, but before the start of the World Cup they backed down when the world football association threatened sanctions.

Previously, then Anderlecht captain Albert Sambi Lokonga caused a stir when he refused to wear a rainbow band in March 2021. He initially hid it under another captain’s armband. After he was called to account, he eventually wore the rainbow band visibly.