A generation after the first gay coming out in the history of football, no player at the 2026 World Cup is openly gay. From Justin Fashanu to Josh Cavallo, a look back at three decades of arduous visibility in men’s football.
Statistically, it’s impossible. Among the 1,248 players taking part in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico, several dozen are probably gay or bisexual. Yet none of them is openly so.
Thirty-six years after Justin Fashanu, the first professional footballer to reveal his homosexuality, men’s football continues to harbor an odd paradox. Anti-homophobia campaigns multiply, federations display their support for diversity, rainbow armbands provoke international controversy, but openly gay players remain almost invisible at the highest level. A look back at thirty-six years of obstructed visibility in the world’s most popular sport.
Justin Fashanu, Forever the First
It was on October 22, 1990 that the first whispers about homosexuality in professional men’s football emerged. Justin Fashanu, a British Black player who had passed through West Ham and Manchester City, comes out on the front page of the tabloid The Sun, which shouts: “£1 m Football Star: I AM GAY.” At 29, Fashanu becomes the very first openly gay footballer in history, and this courage would cost him dearly. Fans double their usual racist insults with homophobic slurs, the manager of his club labels him a “fucking faggot,” and even the player’s brother, John, publicly rejects him, telling the Afro-Caribbean newspaper The Voice: “My gay brother is a pariah.” Justin Fashanu would commit suicide eight years later, in 1998.
The violence of the rejection endured by the British pioneer does not prompt other players to imitate; on the contrary: it implicitly warns them of potential consequences. It would take nearly two decades to see another player publicly reveal his homosexuality. And it is in France that it happens: more than twenty years after the end of his career at Olympique Lyonnais (OL), Olivier Rouyer comes out in 2008 in the sports newspaper L’Equipe. “I was living my life as a gay man so it was time to talk about it and I wonder why I didn’t do it before. If I feared for my career? Yes, and that’s why we cheat,” he would reveal ten years later, in So Foot, the only (former) French footballer to be openly gay to date.
The first coming outs… off the pitch
In the 2010s, the first anti-homophobia actions in football begin to appear. In 2008, ten years after Justin Fashanu’s death, the Justin Campaign association is created in the United Kingdom. In its wake, the collective launches “Football v Homophobia,” the first structured campaign to fight homophobia, which in February 2013 takes the form of a dedicated Month of Action. Gradually, England’s major clubs join this Month of Action: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United…
During the same period, a few gay footballers begin to become visible. But like Olivier Rouyer, they wait to retire before publicly coming out without harming their careers. American players David Testo and Robbie Rogers, who played in Major League Soccer (MLS), the top U.S. league, come out respectively in 2011 and 2013, after their playing careers have been announced. David Testo says: “I regret waiting so long to come out. Not revealing such a secret costs energy. I won the MVP title in 2009 and I couldn’t even thank the most important person in my life.”
“Coming out in the middle of my career might have broken me.”
Thomas Hitzlsperger also waited to reveal publicly his homosexuality until after he had hung up his boots, in 2014. The German player, who featured for major European clubs (Lazio, West Ham, Everton) and earned 52 caps for the national team, explains to So Foot ten years later, in 2024: “Coming out in the middle of my career might have broken me, and I didn’t want people to see me that way, because they would immediately draw a parallel between my level on the pitch and homosexuality.”
At the end of the 2010s, coming outs occur during active careers, but among players in minor leagues or semi-professional championships. In 2015, South African Phuti Lekoloane becomes the first openly gay male footballer in Africa. American Collin Martin comes out in 2018 on Pride Night, and says he has “only received kindness and tolerance within Major League Soccer.” In 2019, Andy Brennan becomes the first footballer in the Australian league to come out. “It took me years to be comfortable saying it: I am gay,” he states in an Instagram post. Are the lines finally moving?
From Josh Cavallo to Jakub Jankto
Parallel to these movements, anti-homophobia initiatives continue to emerge. Among them, Rainbow Laces. Stonewall, a British LGBT+ rights organization, sent rainbow-colored laces to all Premier League clubs in 2013. After a rocky start, the biggest English clubs joined in, and these laces became a symbol between 2014 and 2017. Big names, like Olivier Giroud, embraced them. The France team’s striker got involved by wearing these laces, but also became the first active footballer to agree to appear on the cover of Têtu. “I have no taboos,” he says in our pages. “If I can help change perceptions and attitudes, I’d be delighted.” A year earlier, David Ginola, retired since 2002, had also graced the magazine’s cover, declaring: “I will stand alongside players who come out.” The first heavyweights let their voices be heard.
In France, it wasn’t until 2019 that the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) began to wake up. On the occasion of World Day Against Homophobia on May 17, the body announced that “the captains, coaches, match delegates, and referees will be invited to wear a rainbow armband.” A campaign supported by matchday signage: “Homos or heteros, we all wear the same jersey.” That same year, Antoine Griezmann, a darling of the French team, also graces the cover of Têtu with the message: “Homophobia in football has to stop.” The impact was immediate: it was the first time a player of such stature publicly positioned himself as an ally.
“Cacher qui je suis pour pouvoir suivre ce rêve d’enfant.”
“I am Josh Cavallo, I am a footballer and proud to be gay.” In 2021, the Australian Adelaide United player becomes the first top‑flight footballer to come out while still playing. In a video posted on Instagram, Josh Cavallo explains: “Growing up, I always felt the need to hide because I was ashamed. Shame at not being able to do what I love and be gay. Hiding who I am in order to pursue this childhood dream.”
Encouraged by this example, Jake Daniels, a 17-year-old English player in the second division, comes out the following year. In a statement released by his club Blackpool, he writes: “Off the field, I’ve hidden the real me and who I am. I’ve known my whole life that I am gay, and I now feel ready to come out and be myself.”
In 2023, the 27-year-old Czech Jakub Jankto becomes the first player playing in a national team to come out. “I also want to live my life in complete freedom, he proclaims. Without fear. Without prejudice. Without violence. But with love. I am gay and I no longer want to hide.” He will retire in 2025, after an injury in 2025.
The LFP, UEFA, FIFA…
Still today, no coming out has ever been made by an active player in one of Europe’s five major leagues (France, Spain, England, Italy, Germany). And setbacks remain possible, as the official bodies of men’s football have become adept at the Three steps forward, Three steps back dance…
During Euro 2021, the city of Munich, in Bavaria, sought to illuminate its stadium in the colors of the LGBT flag for the Germany-Hungary match, in reaction to the anti-LGBT law recently adopted in Hungary. But UEFA refused. To justify itself, the body wobbled, claiming to share the values promoted by the initiative but arguing that as a “politically and religiously neutral organization,” it cannot convey a message aimed at a single state. In 2022, during the World Cup in Qatar, seven European teams demanded the right to wear a “One Love” armband in rainbow colors. This time, it was FIFA’s turn to refuse. It was, however, the first time the issue rose to the level of World Cup debates. In March 2026, the French professional football league (LFP) gave up, after several years of recurring controversy, on featuring rainbow colors on jerseys, or even on a simple logo, during the World Day Against Homophobia.
Meanwhile, high-level women’s football, where a trailblazer like Marinette Pichon opened the way, has produced leading models like Megan Rapinoe, a figurehead of the U.S. squad. It shows that the problem has never been football itself. Men’s football has learned to live with the idea that gay players exist. It has produced campaigns, allies, symbols and debates, but still missing what is most crucial: a single openly gay player on the pitch of a World Cup. Thirty-six years after Justin Fashanu, that remains the true score of visibility.
