Thomas Hitzelsperger made 136 Premier League appearances. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty)Former Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzelsperger says that an organised collective coming out of gay footballers could help ‘take the pressure off’ individuals. In doing so, Hitzelsperger became the first German player and first former Premier League player to come out. In 2014, Hitzelsperger said: ‘It really helped me to see that other professional sports people were acknowledging their sexuality. Channel 4 launched a documentary called Football’s Coming Out last week exploring the lack of prominent gay male footballers in comparison with the women’s game.

Source: Metro February 01, 2022 13:49 UTC