Australian Josh Cavallo comes out as men's professional Football's first openly gay player

Australian footballer Josh Cavallo took to his official Twitter handle on October 27 to come out as gay. By coming out openly, Cavallo became the first active footballer in the A-League and the only active men's professional footballer in the world to identify himself as gay. In the tweet posted by him, he admitted that he has been fighting with his sexuality for over six years and he is glad that he can put all that to rest. Cavallo currently plays in the A-league for Adelaide United and has also represented the under-20 side of the Australian football team.

He penned a long message in the tweet, which started with Cavallo saying that he is ready to speak about something in his life that he finally feels comfortable talking about. He then announced in the message that he is gay, and feels the pride to announce it publically. Cavallo then spoke about his journey to get to this point of his life by saying that he couldn’t be happier about his decision to come out. 

I know there are other players living in silence: Josh Cavallo

Cavallo explained in the message that he is a private person and while growing up he always felt the need to hide his identity, citing that he was ashamed of it. He was ashamed of the fact that he would never be able to do what he loved doing, which was being gay. He hid his true self in order to pursue his dream of playing football as he never felt being treated would be a reality someday. The 21-year old footballer further added that being a gay footballer he knows there are other players living in silence and he would like to help them by showing that everyone is welcome in football. 

The Aussie youngster expressed his astonishment at the fact that there are no active gay professional footballers who have come out in the entire world. Hoping that this changes in the near future, he mentioned that the LGBTQ+ community is welcome in football. He also mentioned in the message that people who knew about his physical identification as a gay have always met him with love and support. In conclusion of the message, Cavallo expressed his gratitude towards his family, the Adelaide United family for greeting him with respect and acceptance. He ended the message by saying, “Happy Pride and Go United!”.

Josh Cavallo's tweet-

(Instagram Image: @adelaideunited)