Hitzlsperger came out as gay after he retired from football Graham Hughes/The TimesRetired basketball star John Amaechi has revealed that he is in touch with a number of gay Premier League footballers who feel unable to come out. Amaechi, who announced that he was gay in 2007, four years after ending his NBA career, told MPs yesterday that the players did not feel they would have the support of their clubs or coaches. He also claimed that the football authorities could change prevailing attitudes to gay players “tomorrow” if they had the will. Some of them feel that their team specifically would not be supportive — their team management not their team-matesNo player in the English league has come out since Justin Fashanu in 1990, although Germany’s Thomas Hitzlsperger and the United States’ Robbie Rogers announced that they were gay after leaving English clubs. Giving evidence to the culture, media and sport select committee’s inquiry…

Source: The Times November 08, 2016 17:00 UTC