Why are there so few? What reaction was there from fellow players and fans? ... and, Are there other players on the brink of coming out?

It's not just the recent success of the Lionesses in winning Euro 2025 that sets the women's game ahead of the men's. They are also way ahead when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation. And it wasn't just the Euro 2025 team but also 2023 Women's World Cup squad that saw a record number of out LGBTQ+ footballers taking to the pitch.

So why does the men's game struggle so much? Homophobia is rife in men's football. There are still no out gay male players in the English Premier League, and the FA actually had to launch an initiative to tackle endless damaging homophobic incidents at stadia across the country. It's more than 30 years since Justin Fashanu made headlines as the first professional footballer to come out in England, and to this day he remains the only player to do so.

Ultimately it came at a tragic price, as Justin took his own life after writing in a suicide note that being gay and a football personality had made his life "so hard". He was the first black man to have a transfer fee of £1 million, so thankfully can be remembered by those who supported him as being a trailblazer in English football, for more than his sexuality or tragic death. On 19 February 2020 on what would have been his 59th birthday, he was inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame.

One of the most high profile players who are trying to prove that you can be out and proud and be part of the men's game is Josh Cavallo. He has just signed for Peterborough Sports FC, an English National League North club after leaving his previous A-League team, Adelaide United in South Australia's cosmopolitan coastal capital.

Josh said on leaving Australia, "It's not goodbye forever, but now, it's time to leave the nest with my fiance by my side. Football and life have taken me further than I ever imagined, and new opportunities have led to a new life waiting for us across the world."

The 24-year-old star came out in October 2021 on social media. Immediately, he became the world's only active out gay male top-flight professional footballer. Cavallo has used his voice to speak out against FIFA's decision to penalise players who wore the OneLove diversity armband in the last World Cup and condemned the decision to hold it in Qatar, where same-sex sexual relations are illegal.

Josh also announced that he wouldn't go to the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia were he to be selected because of that country's anti-gay laws.

JAKE DANIELS

Daniels explained that he wanted to come out so that he could live his life how he wanted, and in the hope that he could "be a role model" to others who may want to do the same. Soon after in the Channel 4 documentary Out and Proud in Football, Jake explained that Tom Daley's 2021 alternative Christmas message encouraging "one impossibly brave Premier League player" to come out publicly, encouraged him to share his story.

"Obviously I am a gay footballer, but at the end of the day, I am just a footballer and I just want to be a professional footballer. That is my main focus," he said. He told Sky Sports News that coming out has made him feel much happier and more confident, and he hopes it might even encourage some Premier League players to do the same.

ZANDER MURRAY

He said to Sky Sports that "Coming out is one thing, but then accepting it walking around with your queer friends ... no one gives you a rulebook on how you are going to feel in public. What if my football friends see me, what are they going to say?', [that's some of the worries I had] in my early stages of coming out."

In January 2023, Zander made history once again when he signed with League Two side Bonnyrigg Rose, making him the only openly gay footballer in Scotland's top four divisions. He retired at the end of that year. Then in 2024 he spoke to Gay Star News about his sexuality, the impact internalised homophobia has had on his career, and how being a footballer changed his perception of masculinity.

JAKUB JANKTO

Messages of solidarity flooded in following Jankto's post, with Sports Media LGBT+ founder Jon Holmes stating the moment was "history-making for the men's game". He told Sky Sports: "Jakub is the first active senior international player to come out as gay or bisexual publically. That in itself is a really significant moment for football." 6 months after Jakub's annoucement he said that if he could come out as gay again, he would, because now he can do what he loves "without hiding or being scared."

Collin Martin is a midfielder for North Carolina FC, having previously played for San Diego Loyal in the USL Championship. He came out as gay in 2018 while playing for Minnesota United FC in the Major League Soccer.

He told ESPN: "I want [my clubs] to want me as a soccer player, and as a person." The 29-year-old believed that the lack of LGBTQ+ representation could be down to agents "advising" stars to stay in the closet.

He was vocal about the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar telling PinkNews that his "biggest disappointment" was world governing body FIFA's apparent apathy to LGBTQ+ rights.

He created the Phuti Lekoloane Foundation that aims to provide development and training about LGBTI to the community. To fight poverty, homophobia, correct-rape and killing, substance abuse among the youth and the LGBTI community through sports, training and education, and advocacy.

Offering advice to others, he added, "It doesn't matter how many doors are shut in your face, you need to stay true to yourself." If only players in the English Premier League would follow his example.