[Sparta Prague statement](https://twitter.com/ACSparta_CZ/status/1625118116454727682)
> Jakub Jankto spoke openly about his sexual orientation with the club's management, coach and teammates some time ago.
>Everything else concerns his personal life.
>No further comments. No more questions.
>You have our support.
>Live your life, Jacob.
> Nothing else matters.
Thomas Hitzlsperger for sure ahead of Jankto, but he had just retired before coming out in 2014. I can’t remember how it was received, would be interesting to see
this is much more powerful than a long statement about needing gay acceptance imo. we look to already be heading down the road of “*hes gay, so what*?”. the goal is for these to be less and less important, for these statements to be less and less common, until its just a totally normal thing that doesn’t even require recognition.
its pretty cool, i remember less than 10 years ago we would have to attach an argument to our defense of gay people. we used to have to say “*yeah hes gay….you don’t think two people should be able to love each other?*” but now we have progressed to a place where we can just say “*yep hes gay*” and thats that. No need to follow up with a defense or explanation of why gay people deserve it. Still a long way to go but thats fast societal progress in a small amount of time
In the UK it's extremely difficult to get an appointment to be diagnosed and be allowed to start treatment (there are only 6 clinics in the entire country and they all have huge waiting lists) and in order to change your name/gender on your legal ID you need that
Differs very much per country. But for example in the Netherlands until shortly when transitioning you had to be sterilized if you wanted to change your gender
Yikes. That's bad, but it seems like it was abolished in 2014?
https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2020/11/30/government-offers-apologies-for-old-transgender-act
That is still the case here in Finland, however the law regarding that will change, but still shameful how long it has taken to change this inhumane law
Yeah, you're probably right. I guess as more people come out in support of trans rights and more is done, those opposing it feel more need to speak out and fight back against the progress being made.
Makes it feel like we're going backwards, when in reality it's the opposite.
On the flip side, you have situations like the Daily Mail going out of their way to deadname a transgirl who was recently murdered, and [The Times changing their article to remove all reference of her being a girl.](https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1625057183183282177?t=y9R03twnIBq9Jyug0-iX7Q&s=19)
Edit: Apparently The Times have [restored the article to its original state.](https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1625092484723343360)
It's the Daily Mail. They live 30 years in the past together with the backwards 30% of the people that do as well.
It has rarely stopped social progress and they know it. Things like this aren't meant to halt progress, it's meant to make the progress as painful as possible for the people it's about. It's a message akin to "The world might more and more accept you, but know we'll always hate you".
I live not too far from where that happened, and I noticed all the reporting I've seen simply referred to her as "she"/her", and I onky saw mention she's was trans in an article I read this morning.
In a way the level of apathy about her being trans was kinda positive.
The murder obviously, less so. Only 16, what a tragedy.
tbf I expect right leaning tabloids targeted specifically to a demographic of old conservative twats to be one of the last places to be accepting of lgbt stuff in general, it sucks but it is what it is.
https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
This article is a good start. Rowling is careful not to say anything *outright* transphobic, and to people who think 'bigotry=saying slurs' that's apparently good enough to get her off the hook. But a closer reading of the article, especially with greater knowledge of some of the arguments and people around the issue, exposes what her views are.
I don't have time to go through the article line by line, but ([stealing from Shaun's pretty good video on the issue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_xvXJJk7k)), I'll highlight one part:
> Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.
If you simply read this out of context it looks entirely innocent and justifiable. Rowling got in contact with a *brave feminist activist*, supporters of transgender rights allegedly attacked her over it, *surely* the *transgenders* are in the wrong here!
Of course, this requires you to know nothing about what Magdalen Berns' *actual* views are. Magdalen called trans women 'blackface actors', 'fetishists', 'perverts', 'sick'. In her Youtube videos she always misgendered transgender people, refusing to recognise their identity. She defended white-nationalist Milo Yiannapolis after he was found out to have watched child porn.
So when you start to learn what these people's *actual* views are like, you can begin to question why Rowling is not only aligning herself with them but scrubbing all the examples of their hatred from her descriptions of them. And when you see her do this over and over and over again (a recent example being promoting fascist Matt Walsh's [recent transphobic 'documentary'](https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1546162915107037185?lang=en)) you begin to realise she has a consistent pattern of actively supporting some of the most openly hateful transphobes in our public sphere.
I hope that begins to explain why she's held in such low regard. It's not, as others have tried to dishonestly suggest, because she 'supports women's rights' or whatever. If she supported women's rights she wouldn't be cosying up with the far-right.
EDIT: And if you have time, I'd suggest just watching the video I linked above, or at least a chunk of it. It does a good job of highlighting all the far-right bigots Rowling has been palling around with recently and whitewashing the reputations of.
I don't think it's terse personally, I think they're going for the "clear and direct, and hence impactful" approach, and I think it works.
Language thing too - not every language and dialect is of the flowery sort
Czechs generally do not care (like...about anything :-D ).
The bigot folks are complaining in the lines of "why does he has to say it, nobody cares, he just wants attention, it just annoys people " (like they had a gun to their head and had to read every story about it ).
But nobody is throwing rocks.
There will probably be some online abuse - if not now, than definitely when he misses a penalty or whatever in the future and assholes would use it as an ammo for insults.
Highest profile (male) player to come out to date? Can't wait for the day that this no longer needs to be news and just a footnote in someone's Wikipedia article
I think top footballers coming out as gay will be newsworthy as long as gay people are a minority, look at the amount of nonsense articles there are about players private lives. Saying that I'm sure it'll become less novel and less surprising, which is a good thing.
Yeah that's exactly my point they'll almost certainly always be a minority and players coming out will almost certainly always be newsworthy. But like I'm not going to say that in 100+ years society won't be so different that people considered not straight are a majority, or how sexuality is viewed is fundamentally different or whatever. Someone living in the 19th century wouldn't be able to come close to predicting how sexuality is today, same with us and the far future.
Live here, there isn’t a better term to describe it as Central. They can’t decide if they are Western or Eastern. Zeman, who is very pro East (despite not saying it outright but everyone knows) was the president for the last 8 years, and few weeks ago his ally lost to a very West-leaning candidate with the highest ever votes in history.
The nation are very conservative when it comes to immigrants and foreign policies, but very liberal when it comes to things like LGBT and such. More liberal than Poland or Hungary, but more conservative than Germany. I think Austria and Czechia are fairly similar to compare.
There's definitely a term of Central Europe as the German-speaking countries (or sometimes only Austria, if you consider Germany and Switzerland western) and some of the more western "eastern block" ones that I know many citizens of these countries prefer
I don’t use Twitter anymore, it’s pretty nice.
Reddit has its quirks and plenty of shitters, but my god it doesn’t even come close to Twitter. That place is a cesspool of human indignity.
On reddit you actually get downvoted into oblivion for being a moron, so at least you dont get to see those comments. I wish there was a similar system on twitter.
biggest problem with reddit is that everyone tries to be a smug asshole with a sense of superiority and it gets annoying after a while, it's like that South Park episode about San Francisco, everyone is so smug and busy smelling their own farts without noticing they're all idiots
Yeah I still use Twitter cause it's funny sometimes at least and you can often dismiss bad takes because most are half trolling. Reddit is just too serious for the stupidity that goes on here sometimes like you say.
Yeah if you disagree with someone - no matter how reasonable your take - on Reddit you get instantly called “delusional” it’s one of my favorite quirks
I don't have Twitter, but sometimes I read posts on there, like when they are posted here, and very rarely do I read the replies. This is surely the last time I will ever do the latter.
> He will get easily distracted and can't pursue professional football. Force him a gender change and send him to Women's football
What in the flying fuck is that answer? Does he mean that women's football is not professional? Or that it's okay to be gay only if you're a female player? Or that because he likes other men he should "become" a woman? Does he think that gay men are out there trying to hump every dude they encounter?
Yeah man. He wont be able to play anymore bc his focus will be on sucking all of his teammates off instead of on the game. /s just in case anyone is an idiot.
People are dumb as shit man. He's awesome for publicly doing this and helping to make any other player in the same situation a little more comfortable. Cant wait until this becomes a non story
It's so weird because even ignoring the homophobia, it just doesn't make any sense. He's been gay his entire life. Clearly, it hasn't affected his play at all.
Its actually really similar to how the state of Iran sees gay men. Since Sex between men is haram one of the men must, by their logic, be a woman. As a consequence they get the choice between getting „castrated“/„transitioned“ or a harsher punishment if you dont want to „transition“.
"I speak for every football fan when I say that he should never be able to play football again"
He speaks for all of us...
Then is account is a typical "Benzema/ Mbappe super fan" which indicates where he comes from.
I don't care if you down vote me but most of these replies comes from bizarre Indian/Pakistani or arab accounts. The same ones that spam every comment section with dumb copy/paste comments dissing Messi or CR7. Thank God these idiot spammers do not represent the true fans at the stadium. I'm sure he will be fine
>Makes sense. He plays for sparta after all.
Which the player and the public would probably take all day. That's harmless banter compared to what we unfortunately have to expect.
Yeah honestly, why are the Africans and Nigerians big supporters of him? This is not me being racist btw (before anyone accuses me of being one) but for some reason they are the most prominent ones who still backs him.
He will absolutely, but he's clearly reached his tipping point where he can't hide anymore. So much respect for the guy acknowledging that and still doing what he needs to, knowing there's going to be backlash.
It’s crazy if you think about it what it costs to not come out. Man has to not have a partner, not go out publicly and don’t live together. The shitheads are basically forcing gay people to not start a family and start a life.
injury, divorce - said he wants to be closer to his child in Czechia, probably some mental health problems, he played few games for us and for a player from Seria A/La Liga he was rly underwhelming
You are talking about czech republic here. It certainly wont be nice as I know our fans, but he 100% knows all of this and expects it, thats why that statement is so strong.
This is huge. The first (?) active European player in a first league to do so. All the power to him!
I do hope he stays safe. With the incredible reach that football has, and with the amount of absolutely insane morons running around, there are unfortunately enough reasons to be concerned.
In football especially. I wrote a paper a few years ago about the topic, and it is really insane the low amount of publicly gay professional players there are. There is undoubtedly hundreds of players who are forced to hide their sexuality. It’s very, very brave from Jantko, because football is definitely not a good space for that yet, not even close.
Since you wrote a paper, it must've crossed your mind at some point. Its an argument I've heard many times and kinda agree with. So im curious what you think.
People want to look at the population statistics and apply this to the football 'population' (top flight) and thus come to the conclusion that x amount of pro players 'should' be gay. The counterargument I was talking about in the first paragraph basically sums down to people believing way less gay people pursue certain types of professions like football (and more into other professions). So the total closeted gay footballers would be way less than we expect but offcourse also higher than the amount currently out.
I definitely think that there are quite a few talented gay youth footballers who quit football before even going pro because of the abuse they face (whether they're openly gay and face direct abuse, or due to the general language/mindset used in the locker room). So yeah, the percentage of gay men in professional football is likely to be lower than in the general population. But even then, there are for sure multiple closeted players in every league.
Yeah, it’s obviously a big factor to consider, because football usually pertains to a more ‘straight’ crowd. it would very likely have a lower percentage of gay men than the average profession, based on the nature/culture of the sport. But even if the ratio was, say, 1/5th compared to the average profession, or even 1/10th, there should still have been way way more. From the thousands who have played the game professionally, you could count on your fingers how many European players have come out publicly. Statistically it’s pretty much impossible for there not to have been a substantial amount more. Researching it really opened my eyes, football has a long way to go.
I hate how in the Twitter comments I read multiple times "Gonna be awkward in the locker rooms/showers" like ??? Do they think he's a crazed sex-addict and will r* them at the first opportunity?
If yes, what does that say about them around women?
>If yes, what does that say about them around women?
As often with shifty people, they're projecting.
I even saw one comment saying he "won't be able to concentrate on football". If we're following this shitty logic, no workplace should be co-ed. I mean how am I supposed to concentrate at work with all these women going around? Men and women should each have their own floors, barricaded from each other.
>won't be able to concentrate on football
Yeah, all of a sudden he stops being able to to the job he's done all his life, now that he's Officially Gay™.
This just reveals how little they understand about sexuality and coming out.
These guys probably haven't played team sports in a while too. I was playing football at uni and we had a couple gay mates. No issues whatsoever even in the showers it didn't disturb anyone
Nothing but the epitome of respect for him. Keeping his head up and not hiding who he is knowing it'll make things harder requires some balls of steel.
Wish him nothing but the best
Looking at the twitch replies really makes you think
Football fans when the rich try to steal the sport: “Football is for everyone!!!”
Football player when gay: “except you, get out”
Twitter as well. Arsenal posted about the Gay Gooners last week and the responses were horrendous. 99% of them from Africans. I understand the difference in cultures and it is hard to change the values you were raised with, but it was still really sad to see.
The fact that he had to put a "this is not entertainment" disclaimer at the end shows how [that stupid fucking joke that Puyol and Casillas pulled](https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-lgbtq-footballers-will-be-feeling-discouraged-after-casillas-puyols-joke) is a symptom, and exacerbation, of the hostile environment for LGBTQ people in football.
More power to Jakub, and I deeply hope others find strength in his example. At a time when professional football slips further away from the people, it is nice to think there are some ways it can still represent them.
It was really disheartening to see so many people on this sub defending that joke, saying it was harmless. The only way that joke could have been harmless and acceptable is if it was told in an environment that isn't harmful and unsafe for LGBTQ people. Which clearly does not apply to men's football yet.
I don't know how to accurately explain this, maybe I don't need to, but every time I see a player come out, I get very emotional.
For me, as a young man who was confused all his life until he finished secondary school, I saw how common it was for people to describe things as gay, openly use slurs about gays and not even being able to marry the person you love until 5 years ago. Since I've known who I am, I've never wanted to announce to the world who I am, I just want to be able to live my life without unfair judgment and criticism.
Seeing Jakub Jankto come out just makes me feel there's one step closer to being able to be free. It's liberating to see this, and all at once I feel he must be going through so much to announce this and know there's going to be hate, death threats may sent to him. Just for being who he is.
I've seen others here mention the "who cares" argument, and I understand. I want it to get to that point where people don't have to announce it, they can just casually go to practice holding hands with their husbands, boyfriends, even being able to post pictures online of the two together. It hurts to live a life where you can't be who you really are, but seeing things like this are so overwhelming to see it makes my heart so full of happiness.
Glück auf, Jakub <3
i remember listening to a podcast with a german coach who's gay. he talked about the misconception that ppl think the football world is so accepting of gays now because of captains wearing pride armbands and what not. but in his experience he noticed even more homophobia now from football fans, and attributes it to how ppl see football like a last domain for men among a more and more woke society (idk how to translate it properly) and they want to keep it that way. so yeah, to ppl thinking homophobia isn't an issue anymore, it really is.
Beautiful statement from Sparta. I hope he can find the strength from the inevitable abuse he’ll face from some, and I hope his teammates rally around him for support!
it is so sad. "Will he get a separate changing room?", and honestly that is one of the less shitty comments I saw on twitter. People are such dickheads and sports fans have a lot of room to grow when it comes to these issues. I am at least glad to see how overwhelmingly positive the response on this subreddit
Huge respect for him, and happy for him as well.
Can't wait for the day when stuff like this doesn't need an announcement, because it'll just be a "normal", accepted thing in football. Just live your best lives, everyone!
It's promising knowing that if he told the club/his teammates a while ago and nothing leaked or anything, which hopefully shows that at least a gay player can exist within football while being out without any real issue (external factors like fans aside)
Well done Jakub! ❤️ Hopefully between him and Cavallo we’ve reached a watershed moment which inspires more footballers to feel welcome enough within the sport to come out as well. Definitely the highest profile player to come out to this point which is awesome.
Well done Jakub. I've never thought growing up that I would ever see a footballer come out as gay. All of us are proud of you and your bravery will change football for the better.
Edit: before you downvote go fuck yourself you fucking piece of shit you fucking excuse of a human being.
Boss that, shame it still matters but brave and trailblazing of him and hopefully makes football fans as a whole take a look at ourselves and hopefully change some less progressive attitudes. Really good player him.
Good for him for sharing his truth and not being afraid to live his life.
Takes an awful lot of courage to do that in the sports world. Hope his teammates are supportive and don't view him any differently.
Well done Jakub! The more people who feel brave enough to say that, it easier it is for everyone who feels the same! I know having come out last year, how tough it is and it will be easier for especially to come out who like football and now have role models like him, Cavallo and Jake Daniels to come out, still play football and hopefully means that mens football is more inclusive!
This is so refreshing to see and I wish him all the best! I love the fact that slowly but surely it's becoming more and more acceptable to come out as gay in the footballing world.
I think this is now the 3rd (semi-)professional footballer to come out in the last 2 years or so?
[Sparta Prague statement](https://twitter.com/ACSparta_CZ/status/1625118116454727682) > Jakub Jankto spoke openly about his sexual orientation with the club's management, coach and teammates some time ago. >Everything else concerns his personal life. >No further comments. No more questions. >You have our support. >Live your life, Jacob. > Nothing else matters.
What a statement. Nothing else matters Jacob, live your life.
‘And Nothing else matters’ ‘Yeyeeuh*GUITARSOLO*’
So close, no matter how faaaar
It is a very nice solo.
Tuuuuu... Tuwuwuwu... Tudu tududu tudududu
Easily the most popular football player to come out right? Those of us who have watched Serie A over the past few years will know him!
45 international caps, playing top-flight football since 2016. Definitely a well-established player
Thomas Hitzlsperger for sure ahead of Jankto, but he had just retired before coming out in 2014. I can’t remember how it was received, would be interesting to see
this is much more powerful than a long statement about needing gay acceptance imo. we look to already be heading down the road of “*hes gay, so what*?”. the goal is for these to be less and less important, for these statements to be less and less common, until its just a totally normal thing that doesn’t even require recognition. its pretty cool, i remember less than 10 years ago we would have to attach an argument to our defense of gay people. we used to have to say “*yeah hes gay….you don’t think two people should be able to love each other?*” but now we have progressed to a place where we can just say “*yep hes gay*” and thats that. No need to follow up with a defense or explanation of why gay people deserve it. Still a long way to go but thats fast societal progress in a small amount of time
Can’t wait for trans people to be afforded the same right
Honest question: Which rights do trans people currently lack that gay people have? (Primarily talking western europe here)
In the UK it's extremely difficult to get an appointment to be diagnosed and be allowed to start treatment (there are only 6 clinics in the entire country and they all have huge waiting lists) and in order to change your name/gender on your legal ID you need that
Differs very much per country. But for example in the Netherlands until shortly when transitioning you had to be sterilized if you wanted to change your gender
Yikes. That's bad, but it seems like it was abolished in 2014? https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2020/11/30/government-offers-apologies-for-old-transgender-act
I'm an old fart, 2014 seems like yesterday
That is still the case here in Finland, however the law regarding that will change, but still shameful how long it has taken to change this inhumane law
Unfortunately feels like it's going to be a long wait. Situation feels absolutely hopeless
[удалено]
Yeah, you're probably right. I guess as more people come out in support of trans rights and more is done, those opposing it feel more need to speak out and fight back against the progress being made. Makes it feel like we're going backwards, when in reality it's the opposite.
It doesn‘t, it gets constantly better albeit slowly. 20 years ago JK Rowling wouldn‘t have gotten nearly as much shit as she gets today
On the flip side, you have situations like the Daily Mail going out of their way to deadname a transgirl who was recently murdered, and [The Times changing their article to remove all reference of her being a girl.](https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1625057183183282177?t=y9R03twnIBq9Jyug0-iX7Q&s=19) Edit: Apparently The Times have [restored the article to its original state.](https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1625092484723343360)
It's the Daily Mail. They live 30 years in the past together with the backwards 30% of the people that do as well. It has rarely stopped social progress and they know it. Things like this aren't meant to halt progress, it's meant to make the progress as painful as possible for the people it's about. It's a message akin to "The world might more and more accept you, but know we'll always hate you".
I live not too far from where that happened, and I noticed all the reporting I've seen simply referred to her as "she"/her", and I onky saw mention she's was trans in an article I read this morning. In a way the level of apathy about her being trans was kinda positive. The murder obviously, less so. Only 16, what a tragedy.
We must never use the Daily Mail as a social barometer. I will not tolerate this cynicism.
We have to recognise that it is the highest selling paper in the country, though, and therefore holds a lot of sway over those individuals' opinions.
tbf I expect right leaning tabloids targeted specifically to a demographic of old conservative twats to be one of the last places to be accepting of lgbt stuff in general, it sucks but it is what it is.
what has she said that is transphobic btw? genuine question as she is not somebody I know much about other than she wrote Harry Potter
https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/ This article is a good start. Rowling is careful not to say anything *outright* transphobic, and to people who think 'bigotry=saying slurs' that's apparently good enough to get her off the hook. But a closer reading of the article, especially with greater knowledge of some of the arguments and people around the issue, exposes what her views are. I don't have time to go through the article line by line, but ([stealing from Shaun's pretty good video on the issue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou_xvXJJk7k)), I'll highlight one part: > Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased. If you simply read this out of context it looks entirely innocent and justifiable. Rowling got in contact with a *brave feminist activist*, supporters of transgender rights allegedly attacked her over it, *surely* the *transgenders* are in the wrong here! Of course, this requires you to know nothing about what Magdalen Berns' *actual* views are. Magdalen called trans women 'blackface actors', 'fetishists', 'perverts', 'sick'. In her Youtube videos she always misgendered transgender people, refusing to recognise their identity. She defended white-nationalist Milo Yiannapolis after he was found out to have watched child porn. So when you start to learn what these people's *actual* views are like, you can begin to question why Rowling is not only aligning herself with them but scrubbing all the examples of their hatred from her descriptions of them. And when you see her do this over and over and over again (a recent example being promoting fascist Matt Walsh's [recent transphobic 'documentary'](https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1546162915107037185?lang=en)) you begin to realise she has a consistent pattern of actively supporting some of the most openly hateful transphobes in our public sphere. I hope that begins to explain why she's held in such low regard. It's not, as others have tried to dishonestly suggest, because she 'supports women's rights' or whatever. If she supported women's rights she wouldn't be cosying up with the far-right. EDIT: And if you have time, I'd suggest just watching the video I linked above, or at least a chunk of it. It does a good job of highlighting all the far-right bigots Rowling has been palling around with recently and whitewashing the reputations of.
short but effective, kudos to them
Great statement.
How is homosexuality viewed in Czechia? Seems pretty terse for a message of support.
Czechia is the most liberal Slavic country, and it is okay to hold hands, etc in Prague, but I expect him to receive some abuse from away fans sadly.
What you say is true, but Sparta ultras have a lot of racists as we ve seen very often, so it's quite probable they re also homophobes.
ultras are idiots, good thing is they are boycotting home games this season
>it is okay to hold hands, etc in Prague, but I expect him to receive some abuse from away fans sadly. That's how I'd describe the UK
I don't think it's terse personally, I think they're going for the "clear and direct, and hence impactful" approach, and I think it works. Language thing too - not every language and dialect is of the flowery sort
Czechs generally do not care (like...about anything :-D ). The bigot folks are complaining in the lines of "why does he has to say it, nobody cares, he just wants attention, it just annoys people " (like they had a gun to their head and had to read every story about it ). But nobody is throwing rocks. There will probably be some online abuse - if not now, than definitely when he misses a penalty or whatever in the future and assholes would use it as an ammo for insults.
We honestly don't give a shit. 😅 But I respect Kuba for that, because it's still a big taboo across this sport.
Highest profile (male) player to come out to date? Can't wait for the day that this no longer needs to be news and just a footnote in someone's Wikipedia article
According to my FM it's still newsworthy in 2050
Players can come out as gay in FM?
only newgens not real life players
I think top footballers coming out as gay will be newsworthy as long as gay people are a minority, look at the amount of nonsense articles there are about players private lives. Saying that I'm sure it'll become less novel and less surprising, which is a good thing.
>I think top footballers coming out as gay will be newsworthy as long as gay people are a minority So... Always? Weird comment lol
I think that's exactly their point
Yeah that's exactly my point they'll almost certainly always be a minority and players coming out will almost certainly always be newsworthy. But like I'm not going to say that in 100+ years society won't be so different that people considered not straight are a majority, or how sexuality is viewed is fundamentally different or whatever. Someone living in the 19th century wouldn't be able to come close to predicting how sexuality is today, same with us and the far future.
Highest active player I say. Wish him strength. Takes huge balls to actually come out the closet in these circumstances
Don’t know all that much about Czechia but I know some Eastern European countries can be less progressive in general
Most Eastern Europe countries are very religious. Czechia is by an overwhelming majority atheist/agnostic.
That’s really interesting, I wonder how one country in a pretty religious bloc of countries ended up being non-religious.
Purely stereotype since I've never been or anything, but I've always thought of Czech Republic as a more central European country than western.
Live here, there isn’t a better term to describe it as Central. They can’t decide if they are Western or Eastern. Zeman, who is very pro East (despite not saying it outright but everyone knows) was the president for the last 8 years, and few weeks ago his ally lost to a very West-leaning candidate with the highest ever votes in history. The nation are very conservative when it comes to immigrants and foreign policies, but very liberal when it comes to things like LGBT and such. More liberal than Poland or Hungary, but more conservative than Germany. I think Austria and Czechia are fairly similar to compare.
There's definitely a term of Central Europe as the German-speaking countries (or sometimes only Austria, if you consider Germany and Switzerland western) and some of the more western "eastern block" ones that I know many citizens of these countries prefer
Football in Europe isn't very progressive in general, and that's quite the understatement.
It’s not Eastern Europe
Hitzlsperger
Wasn’t active
Shouldn't even need to be a footnote tbh.
Twitter replies are (suprisingly) supportive, nice
[when the big accounts announce it you can see the hatred](https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1625135109006319616?s=46&t=gP05pWODeEFAyy-8kFmGYg)
Remind me to never read Twitter replies ever again
I don’t use Twitter anymore, it’s pretty nice. Reddit has its quirks and plenty of shitters, but my god it doesn’t even come close to Twitter. That place is a cesspool of human indignity.
On reddit you actually get downvoted into oblivion for being a moron, so at least you dont get to see those comments. I wish there was a similar system on twitter.
biggest problem with reddit is that everyone tries to be a smug asshole with a sense of superiority and it gets annoying after a while, it's like that South Park episode about San Francisco, everyone is so smug and busy smelling their own farts without noticing they're all idiots
Yeah I still use Twitter cause it's funny sometimes at least and you can often dismiss bad takes because most are half trolling. Reddit is just too serious for the stupidity that goes on here sometimes like you say.
Yeah if you disagree with someone - no matter how reasonable your take - on Reddit you get instantly called “delusional” it’s one of my favorite quirks
At least the chuds on this platform stay in their little cesspools. You occasionally get one popping in from popular but that’s about it.
Delete your Twitter account, best move to make IMO! By far the most toxic social media.
I don't have Twitter, but sometimes I read posts on there, like when they are posted here, and very rarely do I read the replies. This is surely the last time I will ever do the latter.
Dear god the replies are absolutely awful
I thought *"How bad can it be?"* I wish I hadn't looked. How can people be so openly hateful in the extreme while also claiming *"We don't care"*
> WE DON'T CARE JAKUB JANKTP😭😭 lol
"We don't care" could be interpreted in a good way to be fair. Some on these replies are just straight up unhinged
> Dear god this guy is at least partially responsible
Fucking hell...
> He will get easily distracted and can't pursue professional football. Force him a gender change and send him to Women's football What in the flying fuck is that answer? Does he mean that women's football is not professional? Or that it's okay to be gay only if you're a female player? Or that because he likes other men he should "become" a woman? Does he think that gay men are out there trying to hump every dude they encounter?
Yeah man. He wont be able to play anymore bc his focus will be on sucking all of his teammates off instead of on the game. /s just in case anyone is an idiot. People are dumb as shit man. He's awesome for publicly doing this and helping to make any other player in the same situation a little more comfortable. Cant wait until this becomes a non story
Just like how women's matches all inevitably end in an orgy
That's true. I dont know why they aren't more popular because of that lol
not to mention the fact that he *already is* a professional footballer. It hasn't distracted him so far, so why would it now?
It's so weird because even ignoring the homophobia, it just doesn't make any sense. He's been gay his entire life. Clearly, it hasn't affected his play at all.
Its actually really similar to how the state of Iran sees gay men. Since Sex between men is haram one of the men must, by their logic, be a woman. As a consequence they get the choice between getting „castrated“/„transitioned“ or a harsher punishment if you dont want to „transition“.
Their instagram account posted this less than 45 mins ago and they've already disabled comments 🥴
It's evening in Africa, India and the Middle East. Always a lot of homophobia coming out of there.
"I speak for every football fan when I say that he should never be able to play football again" He speaks for all of us... Then is account is a typical "Benzema/ Mbappe super fan" which indicates where he comes from.
15 year old as well
So much hate, also the religious bigots are out in full force.
That entire thread is r/ReligiousFruitCake. I’m ashamed of the amount of Barça “fans” that are disagreeing with this.
people always say shit when someone big comes out like 'nobody cares', and it's like, well done, that's the goal- hope we get there sooner than later.
I don't care if you down vote me but most of these replies comes from bizarre Indian/Pakistani or arab accounts. The same ones that spam every comment section with dumb copy/paste comments dissing Messi or CR7. Thank God these idiot spammers do not represent the true fans at the stadium. I'm sure he will be fine
Majority are Middle East, India, Africa.
"No hate towards the rainbow nation but so many football players are straight where's there appreciatuon post" I don't know if this is recoverable.
yeah.. wait for facebook
Wait for novinky. I bet 95 % of comments will be "Makes sense. He plays for sparta after all."
>Makes sense. He plays for sparta after all. Which the player and the public would probably take all day. That's harmless banter compared to what we unfortunately have to expect.
These same guys will probably cheer him when he plays for the national team. Or at least I hope so..
I mean his page on sofifa right now has some real scum comments: https://sofifa.com/player/226592/jakub-jankto/230013/
Probably a lot of very immature teenagers (or even worse, immature adults)
"he likes peepee in poopoo" really gives you an insight on the depth and maturity of these people
Who cares about Facebook, it’s conspiracy theory nutters and geriatrics these days
Anyway, I apparently always rated Sparta
Basically every comment on instagram is a Muslim teenager telling him that he's a disgrace and to quit the game 🤦
Same on Twitter except for one guy from Kenya
[удалено]
Yeah honestly, why are the Africans and Nigerians big supporters of him? This is not me being racist btw (before anyone accuses me of being one) but for some reason they are the most prominent ones who still backs him.
[удалено]
Go to Instagram for your daily dose of disappointment in humanity
Such a good player in his first years in Serie A, especially at Udinese, hopefully he doesn't face abuse for his coming out
He will 100% face abuse...
He will absolutely, but he's clearly reached his tipping point where he can't hide anymore. So much respect for the guy acknowledging that and still doing what he needs to, knowing there's going to be backlash.
It’s crazy if you think about it what it costs to not come out. Man has to not have a partner, not go out publicly and don’t live together. The shitheads are basically forcing gay people to not start a family and start a life.
guess we'll just have to *puts on sunglasses* abuse the abusers
The Instagram comments are completely vile
Good for samp too.
Yes, what happened to him? Why doesn't he play in a top league anymore?
injury, divorce - said he wants to be closer to his child in Czechia, probably some mental health problems, he played few games for us and for a player from Seria A/La Liga he was rly underwhelming
Sadly he definitely will face abuse because of it
Hopefully the support he'll get overwhelms the abuse --- Edit: or is the correct verb "overshadows" in this case?
Both are good, slight difference in tone but means pretty much the same thing in this case
You are talking about czech republic here. It certainly wont be nice as I know our fans, but he 100% knows all of this and expects it, thats why that statement is so strong.
In Czechia he will face a lot of abuse. People here and especially football fans are not the smartest ones or tolerant ones. Poor guy
I don't think the fans are the worst part of it. Few dressingrooms are fully accepting of homosexuality. Source: Wout Brama.
Probably because the fans and players have quite an overlap in demographics (mainly socially).
This is huge. The first (?) active European player in a first league to do so. All the power to him! I do hope he stays safe. With the incredible reach that football has, and with the amount of absolutely insane morons running around, there are unfortunately enough reasons to be concerned.
The first active player who has played in top leagues (Italy, Spain) and at a major tournament (Euro 2020).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Fashanu
Thanks, didn't know him and his story, how tragic. Also, the amount of clubs he went through, damn😳
This is really big imo, he is Czechia national team player. I am so happy for him, and wish him all the best
Played in Serie A for 5 years, very notable player to come out!
He's still a La Liga player technically too (Getafe).
Respect this journalist for not forgetting Justin Fashanu existed.
Wow, this is huge. I got nothing but repspect for him. Be strong Jakub, we love you. ❤️
That's an incredibly brave thing to do as a footballer. Homophobia runs rampant in sports and it takes balls of steel to do something like this
In football especially. I wrote a paper a few years ago about the topic, and it is really insane the low amount of publicly gay professional players there are. There is undoubtedly hundreds of players who are forced to hide their sexuality. It’s very, very brave from Jantko, because football is definitely not a good space for that yet, not even close.
Since you wrote a paper, it must've crossed your mind at some point. Its an argument I've heard many times and kinda agree with. So im curious what you think. People want to look at the population statistics and apply this to the football 'population' (top flight) and thus come to the conclusion that x amount of pro players 'should' be gay. The counterargument I was talking about in the first paragraph basically sums down to people believing way less gay people pursue certain types of professions like football (and more into other professions). So the total closeted gay footballers would be way less than we expect but offcourse also higher than the amount currently out.
I definitely think that there are quite a few talented gay youth footballers who quit football before even going pro because of the abuse they face (whether they're openly gay and face direct abuse, or due to the general language/mindset used in the locker room). So yeah, the percentage of gay men in professional football is likely to be lower than in the general population. But even then, there are for sure multiple closeted players in every league.
Yeah you'd also have to to factor in that many of them may only come to realise their sexuality later on, like as an adult.
Yeah, it’s obviously a big factor to consider, because football usually pertains to a more ‘straight’ crowd. it would very likely have a lower percentage of gay men than the average profession, based on the nature/culture of the sport. But even if the ratio was, say, 1/5th compared to the average profession, or even 1/10th, there should still have been way way more. From the thousands who have played the game professionally, you could count on your fingers how many European players have come out publicly. Statistically it’s pretty much impossible for there not to have been a substantial amount more. Researching it really opened my eyes, football has a long way to go.
I hate how in the Twitter comments I read multiple times "Gonna be awkward in the locker rooms/showers" like ??? Do they think he's a crazed sex-addict and will r* them at the first opportunity? If yes, what does that say about them around women?
>If yes, what does that say about them around women? As often with shifty people, they're projecting. I even saw one comment saying he "won't be able to concentrate on football". If we're following this shitty logic, no workplace should be co-ed. I mean how am I supposed to concentrate at work with all these women going around? Men and women should each have their own floors, barricaded from each other.
>won't be able to concentrate on football Yeah, all of a sudden he stops being able to to the job he's done all his life, now that he's Officially Gay™. This just reveals how little they understand about sexuality and coming out.
These guys probably haven't played team sports in a while too. I was playing football at uni and we had a couple gay mates. No issues whatsoever even in the showers it didn't disturb anyone
Nothing but the epitome of respect for him. Keeping his head up and not hiding who he is knowing it'll make things harder requires some balls of steel. Wish him nothing but the best
Very brave of him to do this as a professional athlete, fair play to him 👏
Looking at the twitch replies really makes you think Football fans when the rich try to steal the sport: “Football is for everyone!!!” Football player when gay: “except you, get out”
Have you seen instagram and Facebook. The Turks and Africans have destroyed those platforms
Twitter as well. Arsenal posted about the Gay Gooners last week and the responses were horrendous. 99% of them from Africans. I understand the difference in cultures and it is hard to change the values you were raised with, but it was still really sad to see.
That’s awesome. Much respect to him for coming out, especially with homophobia and transphobia back on the rise.
The fact that he had to put a "this is not entertainment" disclaimer at the end shows how [that stupid fucking joke that Puyol and Casillas pulled](https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-lgbtq-footballers-will-be-feeling-discouraged-after-casillas-puyols-joke) is a symptom, and exacerbation, of the hostile environment for LGBTQ people in football. More power to Jakub, and I deeply hope others find strength in his example. At a time when professional football slips further away from the people, it is nice to think there are some ways it can still represent them.
It was really disheartening to see so many people on this sub defending that joke, saying it was harmless. The only way that joke could have been harmless and acceptable is if it was told in an environment that isn't harmful and unsafe for LGBTQ people. Which clearly does not apply to men's football yet.
Huge!!! Kudos to him! I hope other players struggling with opening up are able to. We all need to spread love and acceptance
I don't know how to accurately explain this, maybe I don't need to, but every time I see a player come out, I get very emotional. For me, as a young man who was confused all his life until he finished secondary school, I saw how common it was for people to describe things as gay, openly use slurs about gays and not even being able to marry the person you love until 5 years ago. Since I've known who I am, I've never wanted to announce to the world who I am, I just want to be able to live my life without unfair judgment and criticism. Seeing Jakub Jankto come out just makes me feel there's one step closer to being able to be free. It's liberating to see this, and all at once I feel he must be going through so much to announce this and know there's going to be hate, death threats may sent to him. Just for being who he is. I've seen others here mention the "who cares" argument, and I understand. I want it to get to that point where people don't have to announce it, they can just casually go to practice holding hands with their husbands, boyfriends, even being able to post pictures online of the two together. It hurts to live a life where you can't be who you really are, but seeing things like this are so overwhelming to see it makes my heart so full of happiness. Glück auf, Jakub <3
I'm so glad that he feels happy and confident enough to share this with us. I hope this helps to inspire more people to come out in the future.
Good for him man. People shouldn't be afraid to be themselves.
i remember listening to a podcast with a german coach who's gay. he talked about the misconception that ppl think the football world is so accepting of gays now because of captains wearing pride armbands and what not. but in his experience he noticed even more homophobia now from football fans, and attributes it to how ppl see football like a last domain for men among a more and more woke society (idk how to translate it properly) and they want to keep it that way. so yeah, to ppl thinking homophobia isn't an issue anymore, it really is.
Beautiful statement from Sparta. I hope he can find the strength from the inevitable abuse he’ll face from some, and I hope his teammates rally around him for support!
I can't wait for a world where this isn't news. But well done taking a huge leap to get us there Jankto!
Well done Jakub, very brave thing to do.
I'm more shocked about the fact that the replies are actually supportive of him
Whatever you do don't read some of twitters response to this.
it is so sad. "Will he get a separate changing room?", and honestly that is one of the less shitty comments I saw on twitter. People are such dickheads and sports fans have a lot of room to grow when it comes to these issues. I am at least glad to see how overwhelmingly positive the response on this subreddit
I long the day when this won't even be newsworthy. Congrats to him for being a pioneer !
That’s why I really appreciated Sparta’s statement
Huge respect for him, and happy for him as well. Can't wait for the day when stuff like this doesn't need an announcement, because it'll just be a "normal", accepted thing in football. Just live your best lives, everyone!
more power to him. Respect.
It's promising knowing that if he told the club/his teammates a while ago and nothing leaked or anything, which hopefully shows that at least a gay player can exist within football while being out without any real issue (external factors like fans aside)
Good for you Jakub, I wish you all the best.
massive W
Of course he played for same club as Cassano who said he hoped there are no gay players in Italy.
Cassano was an unprofessional fuck who wasted his talent. He used to have pastries snuck into his hotel room before matches.
Well done Jakub! ❤️ Hopefully between him and Cavallo we’ve reached a watershed moment which inspires more footballers to feel welcome enough within the sport to come out as well. Definitely the highest profile player to come out to this point which is awesome.
I couldn’t imagine coming out to a dressing room of other guys, telling two brothers was hard enough.
Good luck Jakub. It's honestly embarassing how backwards football culture still is in some aspects.
Jeez that's brave. Good luck to him.
Samp legend ❤️
Signed this guy on a fifa career mode a few years back he ran my midfield and peaked at 85 rated I wish the best for him
king
Absolute gigachad
Yes sir!! 🫡
Well done Jakub. I've never thought growing up that I would ever see a footballer come out as gay. All of us are proud of you and your bravery will change football for the better. Edit: before you downvote go fuck yourself you fucking piece of shit you fucking excuse of a human being.
Calm down lad you're in the plus
Boss that, shame it still matters but brave and trailblazing of him and hopefully makes football fans as a whole take a look at ourselves and hopefully change some less progressive attitudes. Really good player him.
Good for him for sharing his truth and not being afraid to live his life. Takes an awful lot of courage to do that in the sports world. Hope his teammates are supportive and don't view him any differently.
Very brave and fantastic to see he's comfortable to come out
Good for him. I hope he finds peace after years of hiding. He's being brave as fuck. Respect.
Brave is an overused word but it applies here for sure
Well done Jakub! The more people who feel brave enough to say that, it easier it is for everyone who feels the same! I know having come out last year, how tough it is and it will be easier for especially to come out who like football and now have role models like him, Cavallo and Jake Daniels to come out, still play football and hopefully means that mens football is more inclusive!
[удалено]
You love to see it
As a queer football fan this means a lot that he came out! Always good that more people feel safe enough to come out
That's freaking awesome. Good for him
Wow! Much respect to him for sharing this. Hope we can move forward to a more inclusive football this way.
Wow. That is brave. 👏 How is he performing lately? Was certainly rated high in FIFA 18.
This is so refreshing to see and I wish him all the best! I love the fact that slowly but surely it's becoming more and more acceptable to come out as gay in the footballing world. I think this is now the 3rd (semi-)professional footballer to come out in the last 2 years or so?
Big W. Wish only the best for the guy, and I hope this paves the way for more acceptance and for the normalization of this stuff in the future.
Good for him, it can be a big step coming out in this world 👏 👏
I’m cool with that but sorry I’m not changing what I call the Czechs for a third time.
Czech Republic it is and Czechs are the people end of