[Football] Jakub Jankto

[Frutos]

Not a rumour, he's become the first current men's international player to come out:

BBC News - Jakub Jankto: Czech Republic international midfielder comes out as gay

Czech midfielder Jankto comes out as gay

Czech Republic international midfielder Jakub Jankto says he "no longer wants to hide" as he publicly comes out as gay.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Icy Gull]

Good for him and very brave given he plays in Spain. Edit, no he doesn’t

 

[Live by the sea]

Good for him

 

[Goldstone1976]

I saw that a few minutes ago. Excellent news - though the end game is surely that such an announcement will eventually be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders in puzzlement that it was made. At this time though, it sadly does merit the moniker of 'news' and Jakub is to be roundly applauded.

 

[jcdenton08]

All the time it’s “new” to the game, the media will fill their boots - after all, progress is news.

I’m expecting (well, hoping) that a similar process happens over time whereby, as when Sian Massey-Ellis started running the line, it eventually doesn’t get any more coverage than a bloke doing it.

When Massey first started, every single game it’d be mentioned several times, with accompanying close ups, “female assistant referee”.

Now it doesn’t even get mentioned. If enough players come out publicly as gay, the interest in the change from status quo dissipates and we can all just get on with it.

 

[Grizz]

Bloody amazing and bloody brave of him.

A long way to go, but there's hope for this sport yet.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Good lad. Banning orders for those abusing him. Banning orders for those corporations and organisations who tried to eliminate LGBT support in Qatar.

 

[Frutos]

I saw that a few minutes ago. Excellent news - though the end game is surely that such an announcement will eventually be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders in puzzlement that it was made. At this time though, it sadly does merit the moniker of 'news' and Jakub is to be roundly applauded.

Absolutely this.

 

[dazzer6666]

I saw that a few minutes ago. Excellent news - though the end game is surely that such an announcement will eventually be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders in puzzlement that it was made. At this time though, it sadly does merit the moniker of 'news' and Jakub is to be roundly applauded.

100% this........one area where the women's game is years ahead.

 

[jcdenton08]

100% this........one area where the women's game is years ahead.

Just on this note, the women’s sport is a good deal younger. It doesn’t have the hundreds of years of ingrained sensibilities of the men’s game, thus it is much easier to “start as you mean to go on”.

This, along with the game only really coming to the fore in this country in the last 5-10 years in a far more socially tolerant society, has enabled the women’s game to walk the walk from the off.

The goalkeeping is still atrocious, mind

 

[Acker79]

The article included this line:

Last year, Blackpool's Jake Daniels became the first professional player in the UK men's game for more than 30 years to come out while still playing.​

That completely passed me by, I mean, not that it has to be drawn to my attention, but I would have thought more would have been made of it. I was aware of the other players mentioned in the article.

 

[dazzer6666]

Just on this note, the women’s sport is a good deal younger. It doesn’t have the hundreds of years of ingrained sensibilities of the men’s game, thus it is much easier to “start as you mean to go on”.

This, along with the game only really coming to the fore in this country in the last 5-10 years in a far more socially tolerant society, has enabled the women’s game to walk the walk from the off.

The goalkeeping is still atrocious, mind

Good points. It's getting better quickly to be fair......

 

[WATFORD zero]

100% this........one area where the women's game is years ahead.

When you look at society overall, Men's football is very late to be dragged screaming into the 21st century. About time we got a move on

 

[AmexRuislip]

As it's brave of him to make this announcement, I hope it spurs on other players to come out, especially in the PL.

 

[Sepulveda]

Just an update: he'll come back to Italy to play at Cagliari, who were just promoted to Serie A thanks to Ranieri. Ranieri himself asked their management to get Jankto because he had already coached him at Sampdoria, in what has been Jankto's best season so far. So we'll see how an openly gay professional player gets treated in arguably the most homophobic of the top 5 leagues.

Ranieri, despite being 71 years old, is one of the best as far as the human side of football goes, and is an extremely kind and principled man. He'd already expressed support and admiration when Jankto had come out, and he's said all the right words when the vulturing media asked him about this signing. He's probably the only coach who's liked by all fanbases in Italy, and that's no easy feat.

Personally I'm worried for Jankto, he'll get tons of abuse and right now we don't have any political or administrative figures in place who really care about these issues. Even if he's strong enough to just take it and march on, accumulating all that hatred towards yourself leaves scars, and it isn't good for anybody no matter how they tell themselves they'll grow stronger for it. I hope I'm wrong but I have no faith in our football fans.

 

[Farehamseagull]

Always good news, really pleased for him he feels able to do it now and it’s another small bit of progress but football really needs to hurry and move into the real world where this isn’t big news.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Just on this note, the women’s sport is a good deal younger. It doesn’t have the hundreds of years of ingrained sensibilities of the men’s game, thus it is much easier to “start as you mean to go on”.

This, along with the game only really coming to the fore in this country in the last 5-10 years in a far more socially tolerant society, has enabled the women’s game to walk the walk from the off.

The goalkeeping is still atrocious, mind

In truth though when the women's game started to get traction it was expected (or perhaps hoped) that most of the "girls" were lesbian's and butch for wanting to play a "man's game".

 

[Napper]

In truth though when the women's game started to get traction it was expected (or perhaps hoped) that most of the "girls" were lesbian's and butch for wanting to play a "man's game".

It’s an interesting topic . Lesbians in women’s football are over represented compared to society . It could be due to it still being a bit Tom boyish to play football . I’m not sure but there are plenty of Interesting articles online about it .

Possibly equally the lack of representation in the men’s game maybe as it primarily attracts more heterosexual men at a young age .

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to try and make this point into something it’s not intended to be .

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

It’s an interesting topic . Lesbians in women’s football are over represented compared to society . It could be due to it still being a bit Tom boyish to play football . I’m not sure but there are plenty of Interesting articles online about it .

Possibly equally the lack of representation in the men’s game maybe as it primarily attracts more heterosexual men at a young age .

I’m sure someone will be along shortly to try and make this point into something it’s not intended to be .

Indeed