Football’s Thomas Hitzlsperger on coming out: ‘If you wait for society to be ready for you, it’ll never happen’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Currently, there are only five publicly gay professional footballers in the world. Thomas Hitzlsperger, the former Everton midfielder who came out after he retired, discusses what’s stopping more players from coming out.
Although Thomas Hitzlsperger was not the first footballer to come out as gay to the public, his decision to do so in 2014, mere months into retirement after playing for Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton, as well as the national German team, was a memorable occasion. He was, at that time, the highest profile ex-player to publicly come out. And this year he is being honoured for being an LGBTQ+ trailblazer in the sports category of Attitude 101, empowered by Bentley (see here for the full list of the 10 influential figures who made the 2025 Attitude 101 Sports list)
While discussing the topic of trailblazing with Hitzlsperger, he is careful to give credit to his predecessors. “There were so many before me, and they paved the way and made my life so much easier,” he says, speaking to me over Zoom from his Soho office. He goes on to invoke names from the world of football such as Robbie Rogers and Justin Fashanu, and also those beyond it, including Gareth Thomas, Tom Daley, Dave Kopay and even Harvey Milk, all of whom he credits as influences and inspirations for him prior to coming out.
“I’m often asked ‘Do you know gay football players?'”
As with Rogers and Fashanu before him, following Hitzlsperger’s decision to come out, there was hope that it could act as a watershed moment in football, triggering a cascade of closeted footballers to follow suit, encouraged by the warm reception to his news. Yet, sadly, in the decade that has since passed, remarkably few have followed in his footsteps. Here in the UK, Jake Daniels — a former winner of The Gamechanger Award at the 2023 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards — is the only publicly gay professional football player. Look further afield and you’ll find Jakub Jankto in the Czech Republic, Josh Cavallo in Australia, Phuti Lekoloane in South Africa, Collin Martin in the States and… that’s it. In the entire world.
“I’m often asked ‘Do you know gay football players?’ And so actually, I don’t, honestly,” Hitzlsperger tells me. “Nobody’s ever reached out to me, no professional football player, which is kind of interesting. It just shows how difficult it still is.”
There’s a multitude of reasons which might prevent a footballer from choosing to come out, but the most prominent, Hitzlsperger believes, is the risk it poses to them professionally. “For gay athletes, and in particular football players, [their professional career] is this short period in their life, so you must protect it. Don’t make any mistakes. Coming out, that’s a risk to your career,” he explains, walking me through the psyche of a closeted player. “They probably tell themselves, ‘I can wait until after my career.’ And then when they retire, they find another reason not to say anything, like, ‘Well, it’s not relevant because I’m not a player anymore,'” he goes on. “They always find reasons not to come out.”
“Football fans are so much more welcoming when it comes to gay football players”
Hitzlsperger laments the continued lack of representation on the field, noting that he feels that in spite of this, there has been a major improvement in terms of changing attitudes. “In general, football fans are so much more welcoming when it comes to gay football players. And those very few people who are just ignorant and discriminate against others, they will always be there. We have to accept that’s life,” he opines. While Hitzlsperger maintains a largely sunny disposition, he admits that when he made the brave decision to come out in 2014, he had hoped we might be further on now than we are. “I had hoped that more people would get to that point where they go on this journey, and to see so few, and in particular, ex-players…” he begins. “When my career was over, and I thought, ‘OK, if my reasoning was the fans or I lose sponsors,’ or whatever, once you retire, that’s all gone, and yet there’s hardly any ex-players who speak out.”
Speaking from a place of contentment, Hitzlsperger has words of encouragement for any player or ex-player who might be contemplating making the jump. “I think you can make such a big difference. You can join in the debate. You can talk about your experience, and you become a trailblazer, a role model,” he offers. “So few people see that. They’ll only think about the negative side of it.”
“There was always a part of me that wanted to come out while I was still playing on the biggest stage in the Premier League”
Still, the road to being hailed as a trailblazer is not always easy, of course, and the ex-player is careful to note that players need to be sure they are ready to face whatever may await them. “There was always a part of me that wanted to come out while I was still playing on the biggest stage in the Premier League or playing for the national team in Germany, because that would have a huge impact,” he reveals. “I knew that, of course, but I had to accept that I wasn’t strong enough to do that in that period,” he explains. “It could have done a lot of damage if I had come out earlier, while I was still playing, and I was quite vulnerable.”
Since retiring, Hitzlsperger has kept his foot in the door of the football world, so to speak, by working on occasion as a pundit for BBC Sport. Recently, he penned an op-ed weighing in on recent controversies surrounding Rainbow Laces, an initiative by Stonewall and the Premier League to support the LGBTQ+ community and make queer fans feel welcome in stadiums, the crux of which sees players wearing rainbow laces in their boots and captains donning a rainbow armband on the pitch. This year, however, efforts stalled in some corners as Sam Morsy, captain of Ipswich Town F.C., refused to wear the armband on account of his Muslim faith. “We’ve made progress on the one hand; on the other hand, we haven’t really when you follow this debate,” Hitzlsperger says. “Some players still see their religious beliefs above accepting minorities. They think their religion tells them you can’t accept homosexuality, and I think, ‘Come on, guys, let’s move on. It can coexist. You can follow your religion and still accept the world we live in,'” he posits. “But it’s a lack of education, and I’m disappointed about that.”
Similarly, plans for Manchester United to all wear custom rainbow jackets were scrapped, reportedly due to one player’s refusal to wear it, also on religious grounds, which led the entire team to follow suit in order to protect their teammate from a potential backlash. “It’s disappointing that one player has the power to change what the club initially had planned,” says Hitzlsperger, though he is not wholly surprised by this outcome. “In football, it’s all about the results. If they think this affects the result, they cave in… If the team spends too much time talking about stuff other than football, then it becomes a danger for the team’s success, so they need to get it out of the way quickly, and that was their solution.”
“I think it’s so much more powerful to work on yourself”
In spite of recent developments, Hitzlsperger would still implore any footballer in the closet to try to summon the strength to live as their true, authentic selves. It is a decision he says he’s never looked back from. “I’m comfortable and confident in my own skin,” he says with a smile. “In football, it seems like the debate is always, ‘Oh, the team’s not ready yet. The fans are not ready. The media is not ready.’ They will never be ready. You will always find an excuse, but if you’re strong enough to say, ‘Look, I am who I am and I want to live my life the way I want to live it,’ then others have to get on with it.”
“I think it’s so much more powerful to work on yourself rather than waiting for the perfect moment in society,” he concludes. “Because if you wait for society to be ready for you, it’ll never happen.”
This feature is taken from issue 363 of Attitude magazine, available to order here or alongside 15 years of back issues on the Attitude app.
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