Photo by Edoardo Busti on Unsplash
If you’ve followed the story, you probably won’t be surprised here to know that the anonymous Twitter account claiming to be a closeted professional British footballer has deleted his account.
Earlier today, the account tweeted out a message saying, “I thought I was stronger. I was wrong,” according to The Guardian.
A second message then quickly followed, before the account was deleted, saying:
The account first began tweeting on July 5th that it was being run by a champion footballer who was slowly coming out of the closet.
As he tweeted:
Photo by Tevarak Phanduang on Unsplash
The athlete then said for weeks that he would be coming out “soon.” He also reported on coming out to his family, coming out to his manager, and coming out to his club’s chair.
The account then announced that the athlete would be coming out today, July 24, prior to the start of the upcoming season in August. Unfortunately, he now says he can’t do it.
Of course, there is still major skepticism on whether or not this was all a prank or joke. After all, we only have the word of an anonymous, and now deleted, Twitter account. That said, the account kept insisting that this entire thing wasn’t a hoax both at the beginning and at the end of the entire ordeal.
But despite his words, we ultimately have nothing to show for a month of watching and waiting. And why did we care? Why did many publications cover the story of a random Twitter account professing it was a professional player in the closet? Because, there are very few openly gay athletes, and the football/soccer world is especially toxic towards the idea of coming out.
There are currently no openly gay Premier League soccer players. In fact, then there are only a few openly gay players in the sport such as U.S. midfielder for Minnesota United named Collin Martin, athletes who participate in the Gay Games, and South African goalie Phuti Lekoloane who says,”Being Openly Gay Held My Career Back.” Several other players, especially those in European countries or Africa, have also stated how hard it is to be out or to even be closeted in the sport.
With such an ordeal surrounding the subject of being gay in soccer/football, the idea of an athlete attempting to come out is big news. Even if its coming from a suspicious place.
But was it all a hoax? Or, just a scared man worried about losing his career and passion? We will never know unless the British athlete decides to come out at a later notice (or, we can make assumptions if he never comes out at all).
