German professional football is preparing for a collective coming out on May 17: ‘That makes it easier to bear’

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.

Donations

Perhaps it makes a difference that Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund, Union Berlin, SC Freiburg and VfB Stuttgart are now supporting the project with donations, among other things, as are second division club FC St. Pauli. The clubs do not all mention this on their own websites.

In any case, it is something, says board member Thijs Smeenk of the Dutch John Blankenstein Foundation. This foundation is committed to the social acceptance of gays and lesbians in top and recreational sports and encourages Dutch football players, with whom it has been in contact for some time, to to step forward in an organized context.

Smeenk: ‘That makes it easier to bear together. The support of clubs and administrators is certainly crucial. You also saw that with football players who had their individual coming out.’

Czech international Jakub Jankto did this last year, and a year earlier the then 17-year-old English talent Jake Daniels. Although many clubs expressed their support, according to Smeenk it is no coincidence that many footballers prefer to ‘continue to live two lives side by side’. He points to police figures, which showed this week that the number of reports of LGBT discrimination has increased by almost a quarter in the past year.

Some captains of Premier League clubs refused to wear the One Love rainbow band at the end of 2022, although it is intended as a statement against discrimination. According to Smeenk, that is a big difference with England and Germany. ‘At Arsenal and Bayern Munich, the rainbow flags hang among those of other supporter groups. In the Netherlands we are still far from the level at which this subject is discussed in England and Germany.’