60 2GM Tuesday May 17 2022 | the timesSportFootball
W
hat a happy story.
What a peculiar
moment of joy.
Jake Daniels,
17 years old and an
up-and-coming Blackpool striker,
jiggled his left foot as he conducted
the interview, but that, really, was the
only apparent sign of nerves. “I feel
like I’m ready to tell people about my
story,” he said. And so he did.
Of course, in time — hopefully in
no time at all — it will not be a news
story when a professional male
footballer shares his sexuality. At
some point — hopefully in no time at
all — no declaration will even be
required. But that is for the future.
The present is a time when a player
has at last felt sufficiently comfortable
and confident to share the news that
he is gay. And the sports world feels a
little more advanced, a little more
grown up as a result. Happier too.
This moment has had a
preposterous build-up. That is why it
was “breaking” news. In the 21st
century it should not be breaking
news to declare your sexuality, but
some cultures and walks of life
struggle to keep up and, in this,
football has been one of them.
Male team sports environments
can, often, be too testosterone-y, too
laddish, and therefore intimidating
for a minority who feel they do not
completely fit in. This was where
Daniels was until recently: carrying
the weight of the feeling that, in one
regard, he was an outsider — and
wanting to be shot of it. Him and how
many others?
So this all became a thing: who
would be the first in English
professional football to come out?
That is not a nice thing, a weird kind
of notoriety — which is why no one
grabbed it. Until Daniels yesterday.
And then he said that after all that
anxiety, when he finally let it go and
released the secret from his mouth,Daniels: The story so far
6 Born in Bispham in Lancashire
on January 8, 2005. Has developed
through the Blackpool age-group
teams.
6 A striker, Daniels was considered
the outstanding talent in Blackpool’s
youth team this season, scoring
30 times and earning a professional
contract.
6 Made his senior debut in the last
game of the season, coming on for
the final nine minutes of Blackpool’s
5-0 defeat by Peterborough in the
Sky Bet Championship.
6 His manager Neil Critchley said:
“It’s going to be interesting to see
his development next season.”Sporting world feels a little
his family were happy, and his other
family — his team-mates and
everyone at Blackpool — were happy
too, and it was lovely, really, to watch
him share this very simple revelation.
It felt good to recognise that we —
football, sport, English culture —
aren’t necessarily that repressed after
all. This was done in a grown-up way.
The news has been rattling around
Blackpool, the football club, since the
start of the year, and no one leaked it,
everyone respected it.
Sky Sports News had been in on it
too, and rather than rush to release
some “gotcha” revelatory exclusive,
they worked with Daniels, discussed
it with him, the club and his family,
and established how and when to best
release the news.
In making his announcement,
Daniels said he hoped that others
would now feel more empowered
to follow suit. “I want to be a role
model by doing this,” he said —
which sounded beautiful and
straightforward, but that English
football has become so constipated
on this subject shows the courage
that Daniels had to summon to be
the first to unblock the system.
You have to hope that others
will, indeed, follow his lead. That
does not now seem an unreasonable
expectation.
Of course English football is not
suddenly cured of homophobia. In hisinterview, Daniels acknowledged the
inevitable abuse that will come his
way from opposition fans, maybe
even some of his own. It will be
interesting to gauge the volume of the
minority and, indeed, the amount of
self-policing that goes on around it.
Surely the timing of this
announcement was made with that in
mind. Blackpool’s season — they play
in the Sky Bet Championship — has
finished, so it will be three months
until Daniels plays in front of crowds
again. His coming-out will be less
fresh in the mind.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that
pockets of homophobia still exist
within dressing rooms too. Four years
ago The Sun reported on two Premier
League footballers who were being
bullied by team-mates who suspected
that they were in a relationship.
Only two weeks ago Patrice Evra
said on The Mid Point podcast, “You
can’t be a gay football player, people
will go mad,” pointing the finger
particularly at his time at West Ham
United, when a number of players
said that they would not accept a gay
player in the team.
All of this will have been racing
round Daniels’s mind before he finally
decided to let his own news go. What
a brilliant turn of events that the day
after he told his mother and sister
that he was gay, he played Accrington
Stanley in a youth game and scored
four goals. What a release.
Now that it is done and the news is
out, it feels both momentous and
instantly forgettable. “Footballer
declares he is gay” — no story
here, except that it seemed
congratulations were coming his
way from all corners of the sporting
planet, which again shows the joy
that Daniels has triggered in the
simple act of being true to himself.
Thus will he be known as the first
gay professional footballer to come
out since Justin Fashanu more than
30 years ago. He should be very
proud of that. It is a strange, yet
admirable, achievement.
One day, though, we will get to the
point when he is just known as a
footballer, not the gay footballer, and
then Daniels will have played his own
considerable part in achieving a
whole lot more.Owen Slot
Chief Sports
WriterFootball’s LGBTQ+ history
How many openly gay professional
players have there been in England?
Justin Fashanu became the first
male professional player to come
out as gay in English football in- Thomas Hitzlsperger, the
former Aston Villa midfielder,
revealed he was gay after retiring in - The former USA midfielder
Robbie Rogers came out in 2013
after being released by Leeds United
but returned to professional football
with LA Galaxy from 2013 to 2017.
Have there been any elsewhere?
In October, Josh Cavallo, a 22-year-
old Adelaide United player, became
the only active male top-flight
player to come out. Collin Martin,
now playing for USL Championship
side San Diego Loyal, came out in
2018, while Andy Brennan became
Australia’s first openly gay male
professional footballer in 2019.What examples have there been in
other sports in Britain?
The diver Tom Daley announced
that he was gay in 2013, eight years
before winning an Olympic gold
medal. Gareth Thomas, the former
Wales rugby international, came out
in 2009, before retiring in 2011.What about in women’s sport?
The former tennis stars Billie Jean
King and Martina Navratilova are
both seen as trailblazers. Women’s
football is more representative than
its male equivalent: high-profile
LGBTQ+ players include the Arsenal
striker Vivianne Miedema, Chelsea’s
Sam Kerr and the USA international
Megan Rapinoe.