Loud and Queer

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Out of almost all the sports, its the soccer players that get me riled up the most. I think “footballers” are so damn handsome.  Well here is a story about a handsome and homo-friendly soccer chap!

The Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez has broken ranks with the soccer  establishment, including his own team and the German football federation, and urged gay players to come out!

Gomez, who has not said whether he is gay, told a German magazine that being honest about sexuality would improve gay players’ performance.

“They would play as if they had been liberated,” Gomez said. “Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic.”

The 25-year-old, who was voted German footballer of the year in 2006-7, added that there were plenty of role models in the rest of German society to give gay players the courage to come out. “We’ve got a gay vice-chancellor [Guido Westerwelle]; the Berlin mayor [Klaus Wowereit] is gay. So professional footballers should own up to their preference,” he said.

Sadly, there are no openly gay players in Germany‘s Bundesliga, reflecting the situation across the football world, although it is estimated that about 10% of players are closeted gay.  (Can I pick which ones? )

FYI – Some fun facts on gays in German soccer:  The only German footballer to come out is Marcus Urban, who told his teammates in 1997 and then promptly ended his professional career!  Urban then waited until 2007 before going public with his story, encouraging other gay players  to come out and contribute to more tolerance in football.

The only British footballer to have outed himself while active was Justin Fashanu in 1990. The Sun newspaper paid him a six-figure sum to run the headline: “I am gay.” Fashanu killed himself in 1998 after a 17-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault, a charge he denied.

Gomez’s comments were made in a week in which many have reflected on the one-year anniversary of the death of goalkeeper Robert Enke.  Enke suffered from chronic depression and killed himself, but his death has contributed to a new spirit of openness in the sport, including encouraging players to have the courage to share their personal problems.