Jonathan de Falco

A few months ago, I blogged about the cute and supremely confident Anton Hysen - a professional football who is out and proud.  He's enjoying gay life to the full it seems (via his blog) - appearing in magazines, on radio, lots of TV, film premiers, working with clothes designers, etc etc.  I like the guy and it seems he is really genuine.

With footballers in mind, there is news of another footballer coming out, but this time there is a twist to the story...

A professional footballer has made a new career using his tackle, by becoming a gay porn star. Former Belgian professional footballer Jonathan de Falco, formerly of Racing Mechelen and Oud-Heverlee Leuven, has assumed the name Stany Falcone to follow his dream of becoming a gay porn star.

The 26-year-old told the Antwerp Gazette: "I felt more and more content with who I really was. I had to really go on, but after a conversation with the club, we agreed that I should leave the club earlier and I would change my life. The football world is not ready for gay players. There is too much prejudice and generally low tolerance. Since I was 20 I have been in gay circles, but when I played soccer, nobody noticed anything. If my orientation would have been known, there would have undoubtedly problems."

So I have have been thinking.  There are around 4000 professional footballers in England.  If I use a very conservative 3% gay ratio (the gaytio*), then that means there are 120 closeted guys playing football.  It saddens me to think that there are so many guys who have to live a lie, cant be themselves and ultimately cant be happy. I hope that the experience of Anton Hysen will be positive enough to allow some guys to say "I'm gay, I play football, so what?!".

* Copyright Stephen Chapman 2011