Jake Daniels Says There Are Definitely More Gay Footballers

Out gay football player Jake Daniels has shared that there are “definitely” more gay players in the league. The Blackpool FC star became the first active, male professional footballer in Britain to come out publicly as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990. 

Daniels spoke to former professional footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger for LADbible TV to discuss his thoughts on the sport, and whether he believed there were gay footballers who had yet to come out. 

The 18-year-old forward said, “I don’t know of any, I do think that there is. But if there is, you come out when you’re ready. You can’t force anything, it’s their choice”. 

Daniels asserted that he “definitely” thought there were other players in the league who identified as gay and looked to public opinion as the probable factor to prevent others from feeling comfortable coming out while being an active footballer in the UK. 

Social Media Impact

“Social media is one massive thing. Being a footballer, you’ll get targeted by other fans. And I feel like being gay, or racism, is such an easy target for someone to target you for. Someone can say you’re a rubbish player but if you have come out as gay, that’s their first instinct to target you”, he said. 

The Blackpool FC player told Hitzlsperger that the potential backfire and public responses to players coming out would be a scary thing for players to undergo. 

“They’ll be shouting ‘You’re gay’ on the pitch, that’ll be their first thing. I think for footballers, having such a massive fan base, I feel like that is the main scare of it. It’s social media”, he said. 

Daniels reflected on the traditional perception of masculinity in football as a reason why there currently aren’t any other players who have come out alongside him. “I always have said, masculinity is a thing and in sport, you have to be strong”. 

“I feel like people refer to being gay as being weak, which is obviously not it. But I just think social media is the biggest thing, I would say”, he added.

Meeting Soulmate

Daniels recently opened up about meeting his ‘soulmate’, after coming out to the public, speaking on Rylan Clark’s podcast, ‘How to Be a Man’, about how he met his partner. 

After he came out, Daniels had his social media “taken off” and when he returned to Instagram, there were around “20 000 message requests or something ridiculous like that”. The top message was from his now partner, congratulating him for having the courage to be open with his sexuality. 

“I had a sneaky look on his Instagram, and I was like, ‘Alright!’ Dropped a message back and said, ‘Thank you so much’, – and at the end asked something like “Is there anything else I can do for you?’ I knew what my motive was!” 

Following Facetime calls, and longer interactions between the two, including meeting in person, the couple have “been together ever since”. 

Daniels came out in May last year saying that he didn’t want to “lie any more”. 

“I am hoping that by coming out, I can be a role model, to help others come out if they want to. I am only 17 but I am clear that this is what I want to do and if, by me coming out, other people look at me and feel maybe they can do it as well, that would be brilliant”, he wrote at the time.