Josh Cavallo becomes world’s only ‘out’ gay professional footballer

‘I’m a footballer and I’m gay’ says Australia’s Josh Cavallo

Adelaide United player Josh Cavallo has taken to social media to declare his sexuality and in the process has become the only current top-flight male professional footballer in the world to be openly gay. 

Cavallo said he was “ready to speak about something personal that I’m finally comfortable to talk about in my life”. 

He posted an accompanying video in which he stated “I’m a footballer and I’m gay. All I want to do is play football and be treated equally.”

He spoke to the BBC and admitted he was tired of trying to perform at his best within his top-flight team “and to live this double life, it’s exhausting”. Cavallo said his mental health had been suffering and his brain had been going “into dark places”. 

“At the end of the day I just wanted to be happy. This is bigger than football, it’s my life. I’d go home and I wasn’t happy,” he told the BBC’s Newshour programme. “It’s been a journey to get to this point in my life, but I couldn’t be happier with my decision to come out.”

“I have been fighting with my sexuality for six years now, and I’m glad I can put that to rest.” “It just slowly eats away at you and it’s not something I wish upon anyone.” 

He admitted he was scared to come out, feeling that people would think differently of him when they knew about his sexuality. He feared that people would start saying bad things about him or making fun of him. But he added: “That’s not the case. If anything you would earn more respect from people.”

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