A Gay Soccer Star } Is Germany Ready For Him?

Whether you call it soccer or footbal, it’s a sexy sport and we’d love to see a few of those ball kickers be real life ball l-… well, you get our drift. Whether or not the crowd is ready for it’s soccer players to come out is a subject of debate in Germany. Want to know why?

According to the Washington Post, German Soccer Federation President Theo Zwanwiger encouraged the league's closeted players “to have the courage to come out.” At a recent federation event Zwanziger said he believed that society was more understanding than a few years ago. We assume he's referring to when Justin Fashnau publicly outed himself in 1998. Fashnau's experienced so much turmoil post-outing that he ended up taking his own life a few years later.

Germany captain Philipp Lahm disagrees with Zwanziger for this very reason, saying the German society has not come as far as one might think, and an out soccer player wouldn't be well received. 

 

Is there ever a right time to break down new walls for tolerance? Or do leaders simply do it and allow the rest of the world to acclimate? What's your Instinct?

 

Currently there are no openly gay players in the German league. Although he's given his full support to whichever of his teammates is the the first to fly the gay flag, it won't be soccer hottie Mario Gomez (pictured above). Now that's just a shame.

instinctmagazine.com