By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s first openly gay soccer player Josh Cavallo said he receives multiple death threats every day and would find it difficult to encourage other footballers to come out due to the sport’s “toxic” environment.
The Adelaide United midfielder came out in 2021 and said that despite his club and coaches’ support his openness about his sexuality had brought him a lot of pressure and negativity.
“There’s multiple, multiple, multiple death threats that come my way daily still. And it’s quite sad to see,” he said on FIFPRO’s Footballers Unfiltered podcast.
“In the world of football, being an openly gay player is a very toxic place. It’s something that not everyone would be able to handle and go through.
“I still think we’re a very, very long way of being acceptance in this space.
“So, these are factors that people will consider in their coming out and they might not be out now, but coming out brings all this attention, it brings all this pressure, brings all this negativity that will affect their game in the long run.”
Cavallo has received homophobic abuse from soccer crowds when playing for Adelaide and been vocal about the problem on social media.
“It’s difficult to say to people, ‘Absolutely, come out, be yourself,'” he said.
“But it also comes with a mountain of downsides as well that I don’t think people realise.”
Cavallo said having a support network around him had helped him “put up a wall” to protect him from abuse.
He also said he wished he had come out earlier, rather than waited until he was 21, because he felt himself living a lie.
“I was tired of being hidden and tired of having to go around and hide from people and not live my authentic self,” he said.
“And then I would be like why hasn’t this happened in football? Why hasn’t no one ever came out to be themselves and be successful and play.
“And I understand that now looking back, all the negativity, all the things that come your way.”
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
