Group of top footballers ‘are planning to come out as gay and have set an announcement date for next month – including couples in a top league’

May 17 will mark a landmark day in German football with multiple male footballers planning on coming out as gay, according to reports.

German outlet Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung claims a group of professionals across the country will declare publicly their sexual orientation.

The date in question is of particular reference as it is the International Day Against Homophobia.

The monumental occasion would occur during the German domestic season still, with the penultimate weekend of the Bundesliga action, its top-flight, taking place across that weekend.

It is believed that all of the clubs the reported players are aware of the planned proposals.

The date in question is of particular reference as it is International Day Against Homophobia (pictured the Allianz Arena in Munich lit up in rainbow colours in support of  LGBTQIA+)

Marcus Urban is an ex-footballer in Germany who came out as gay in 2007. Now co-founder of Diversero, a global community for diversity, he hopes next month’s plans do come into fruition

However, Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung add that some players still have reservations about revealing their homosexuality and could still make a U-turn in doing so.

Marcus Urban is a former footballer in Germany who came out as gay in 2007 – 16 years after quitting the sport. Urban, now 52, is the co-founder of Diversero, a global community for diversity, and hopes next month’s plans do come into fruition.

‘I think they are respected and celebrated for that. Not by everyone, that’s clear. But hate speech cannot be a criterion for a life,

‘May 17 is an offer,’ he told the Editorial Network Germany (RND). ‘A date that you could use as a guide and get together as a group.

‘There is controversy there. Do I still want to wait until the world of football becomes the way I want it to be? Why should I wait? An interesting dynamic has come into play, you can see that people’s minds are starting to move and are thinking about whether it really makes sense to continue to hide and deny themselves.

Urban went on to reveal that there are gay couples playing in the Bundesliga too – declaring it would be ‘liberating’ if they came out.

‘There are also gay Bundesliga couples who are in hiding,’ he continued.

‘That would be so liberating. What’s wrong with it.’

At present there are no active male professional footballers in Germany who are openly gay.

Former Germany international, Thomas Hitzlsperger, who played in the Premier League for Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton, came out as gay in 2014 a year after retiring.

In October 2021, Adelaide United midfielder Josh Cavallo became – at the time – the only known current top-flight male football player in the world to come out as gay.

Former Germany midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger (left) came out as gay a year after retiring 

Australian Josh Cavallo became the first current active player to come out as gay in 2021

Then 21, the Australian – now 24 and recently engaged to his fiance as of last month – told the world he was tired of ‘living a double life’.

Since Cavallo’s reveal, three other footballers have come forward as gay – Blackpool forward Jake Daniels, Cagliari’s Jakub Jankto and San Diego Loyal midfielder Collin Martin.

The first professional player to come out while still playing was Britain’s Justin Fashanu in 1990 – 32 years before Daniels – but he never found acceptance in the game and tragically took his own life 1998.

A charity set up by Fashanu’s family last year released a letter from an unnamed gay player in the English Premier League which highlighted how little football’s culture had changed.