Former Aston Villa and Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger has revealed he is gay.

The 31-year-old, who won 52 caps for Germany and also played for West Ham and Everton, made the announcement in newspaper Die Zeit.

He is the most prominent footballer to publicly reveal his homosexuality and said it was "a good time" to do so.

"I'm coming out about my homosexuality because I want to move the discussion about homosexuality among professional sportspeople forwards," he added in the interview.

I say good on him. Whatever you do consensually with other adults in your spare time behind closed doors is up to you. Really, I don't care whether you're white, black, Asian, Jewish, Muslim, straight, gay, blonde, ginger, tall, short... just so long as you're a decent person, and if you're on my team, a decent footballer.

 

The first player was always going to be of another nationality in the UK, I don't believe this will pave the way for others to come out and I think it's time that all players was treated fairly. More support personally, I think it will be awhile before an English player speaks up - then perhaps a slow following from that but I see the majority still be unsure as to come out.

Good for him though, it doesn't it effect his football.

Well he is retired so it doesn't matter if it affects his football. :-)

The stigma is going at a snails pace, but it's going to take a generation or 2  to change the minds and attitutdes of the Masses. This subject is very very important to me, I'm not gay, but some of my best friends are, and some of the Teenagers i work with. 

 

"No Freedom, till we're all Equal"

it is important that players are supported and if they feel up to it fight for change. without players being brave nothing will change, so its important for that reason.

good for him!

Brave move by Hitzlesperger, would have been braver and more significant if he had said it while he was still playing, but I'm not complaining because I do agree with him that his statement does "move the discussion forward".

 

@Joe Jones, I really like your statement of equality too, well said, mate    I can't imagine many of the ugly thugs in the English Hooligans video [from any of the countries] have evolved enough to appreciate the importance of the OP.  

It's nice to see a discussion being lead by thought and consideration, I've noticed some horrible tweets about this. It makes me glad we can respect this and voice our opinions in a way which might help change the sport one day.

Football needs more fans to accept this.

Fair play to the bloke. You can perhaps understand why he didn't say anything while he was playing.

 

Looking back at the Justin Fashanu case, one can only imagine the torment he must have had, feeling the only way out was to take his own life.

At one point was even disowned by his own brother, and lets face it, family is the one area where you ought to be able to rely on for support.

 

But the more who do have the strength of conviction to "come out" the better, and I would hope that we have progressed far enough away from knuckle dragging to accept people for who they are.

 

@Joe Jones   I get what you're saying about any race etc etc, but come off it we have to draw the line at Ginger!!!!

Alls I'm going to say is I hope I live to see the day when a footballer coming out as gay isn't a big news story