Liam Davis the highest profile footballer to date, has come out in a newspaper interview.

by Newsdesk | 14th January 2014

• Liam Davis is a midfielder for Gainsborough Trinity

• Is the highest profile out player in Football

• Came out in the Lincolnshire Echo

Another sportsperson has made the leap and come out as gay. Liam Davis is a midfielder for Gainsborough Trinity.

Gainsborough Trinity is a semi-pro club.

Speaking to the Lincolnshire Echo he said:

'Now, with football played so much from the top level down to non-league, there has to be more than one, statistics say that. So what that says to me there must be some who are not comfortable to come out.

'At the age of 23 I like to think that I've got a good number of years left in the game and a lot of time to make a stand.

'I personally hope that over the next 10 years I'm not the only gay footballer out there. Nobody wants to be forced out, but I hope they can look and see there is someone out there who has done it.

I hope we can get to a stage where it is not a bad thing, that there is no problem and people just get on with it.'

Talking about his coming out to his team mates Davis said:

'The goalkeeper Phil Barnes brought it up with me at the bar. I don't know if it was a bit of Dutch courage that made me talk about it, but I think the way Phil asked helped as well. He did it in a jokey way which broke the ice and that was good.

'I didn't know if people knew. I had intended to just get on with playing football. There had been questions like, ‘have you got a girlfriend', and I'd just say ‘no', because it was the truth, so I had a suspicion that they might have an idea. Then it turned out they all knew from the first day I was at training.

'That is the one thing I will say I really enjoy about playing for Gainsborough, is that it is a very close knit group of lads.'

Last week a former pro footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger came out as gay - and a Brazillian Olympic Diver hopefully Ian Matos came out over the weekend.

Liam Davis the highest profile footballer to date, has come out in a newspaper interview.

by Newsdesk | 14th January 2014

• Liam Davis is a midfielder for Gainsborough Trinity

• Is the highest profile out player in Football

• Came out in the Lincolnshire Echo

Another sportsperson has made the leap and come out as gay. Liam Davis is a midfielder for Gainsborough Trinity.

Gainsborough Trinity is a semi-pro club.

Speaking to the Lincolnshire Echo he said:

'Now, with football played so much from the top level down to non-league, there has to be more than one, statistics say that. So what that says to me there must be some who are not comfortable to come out.

'At the age of 23 I like to think that I've got a good number of years left in the game and a lot of time to make a stand.

'I personally hope that over the next 10 years I'm not the only gay footballer out there. Nobody wants to be forced out, but I hope they can look and see there is someone out there who has done it.

I hope we can get to a stage where it is not a bad thing, that there is no problem and people just get on with it.'

Talking about his coming out to his team mates Davis said:

'The goalkeeper Phil Barnes brought it up with me at the bar. I don't know if it was a bit of Dutch courage that made me talk about it, but I think the way Phil asked helped as well. He did it in a jokey way which broke the ice and that was good.

'I didn't know if people knew. I had intended to just get on with playing football. There had been questions like, ‘have you got a girlfriend', and I'd just say ‘no', because it was the truth, so I had a suspicion that they might have an idea. Then it turned out they all knew from the first day I was at training.

'That is the one thing I will say I really enjoy about playing for Gainsborough, is that it is a very close knit group of lads.'

Last week a former pro footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger came out as gay - and a Brazillian Olympic Diver hopefully Ian Matos came out over the weekend.