Jake Daniels

The former England striker believes Daniels' decision to become the first Briton in the men's professional game to come out publicly as gay will ensure ...

Only then may we see more players, like Jake, willing to step out of the shadows - and live the life they truly wish to.” The Football Association said Daniels was “an inspiration to us all” and added: “We fully support your decision to be open about this part of yourself. Until the authorities take firm and more decisive action I am concerned many players will continue to live in secret, wrongly believing they have something to be ashamed of. She said: “If my Uncle Justin were alive I know he would have been one of the first people to have contacted Jake to offer his support and best wishes. “Stonewall is proud to provide ongoing support to Jake, his close network and Blackpool FC to navigate the challenges of coming out in the public eye. “This is a big story, and an historic day in English football, but we need to remember that there is a young man at the heart of it.

"Just seeing someone like you on the pitch" is so important for LGBTQ+ fans, says Pride in Football.

It is so exciting and we want to invite him to Pride Blackpool on 11 June." "What a great character he must be to be so open and I'm certain he will go on to be a great player for the Seasiders." "From a Blackpool fan point of view hopefully it gives him the freedom in his own mind to fulfil his ability and go on and be a really top player." "It is absolutely amazing. "Blackpool fans will have no issues whatsoever and will welcome him as a great future for our great club," he said. He said his announcement had come at the end of a "fantastic" season.

Jake Daniels' announcement that he is gay has been welcomed as an "historic day" for English football, with England captain Harry Kane among many who have ...

“The subject of being gay, or bi or queer in men’s football is still a taboo,” he said. That was a great reaction because it showed how much they cared.” Now I can just live my life how I want to and you know what? It’s the best thing I could have asked for. It’s an easy thing for people to target. So this was the one last thing in my head that I knew I needed to do. “When this season started, I just wanted to prove myself as a player. It’s been incredible.” They said that football has made "a lot of progress quickly" since then, and they believe that having an openly gay footballer in the men's game and "just seeing someone like you on the pitch" may have a "powerful" effect on LGBTQ+ fans. Daniels told Sky Sports: “It’s been quite a crazy year. I’ve signed a professional contract. I’ve scored 30 goals this season and I’ve just made my first-team debut in the Championship, coming off the bench against Peterborough.

That performance at Stamford Bridge earned the 17-year-old a professional contract from first-team head coach Neil Critchley who was in attendance in London.

Narrowly losing out 3-2 to what is widely regarded as the best academy setup in the country speaks volumes to the levels Blackpool were setting - and Daniels was at the heart of that. This rang true once again in the 2021/22 season as John Murphy's side reached the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup and booked a place to play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Daniels was awarded Blackpool's young player of the year award at the end of the recent campaign after a sensational run of form saw him notch a tally of 30 goals in all competitions.

Openly gay footballer Josh Cavallo says it is a “wonderful feeling” to know his experience helped inspire Blackpool forward Jake Daniels to come out.

“It’s touching to see the millions of people that my story has impacted and inspired around the world, and to see it help evolve the world game at all levels, is fantastic. This world and the game of football has a place for everyone. It’s an easy thing for people to target.

An inspiration, incredible courage, historic moment - sport reacts as Jake Daniels comes out; Gary Neville: It is a day of great importance for Jake and his ...

"It's touching to see the millions of people that my story has impacted and inspired around the world, and to see it help evolve the world game at all levels, is fantastic. This world and the game of football has a place for everyone. "It is a day of great importance for Jake and his family but also for English football. It looks like he has huge talent as a player and we hope he will do really well. We have been in dressing rooms for many, many years and that would seem like the unthinkable to announce that you are gay. It will go down in history."

Ireland internationals Katie McCabe and Richard Keogh are among the footballers to praise Jake Daniels after he publicly came out as gay.

There have long been fears that football as a sport would be an unsafe environment for an openly gay male player, but the support received by Daniels since his interview would appear to go against that theory. “I want people to know the real me. The cookie limits the number of times a user is shown the same advertisement. You have a choice in who uses your data and for what purposes. The cookie limits the number of times a user is shown the same advertisement. The cookie is also used to ensure relevance of the video-advertisement to the specific user. This allows Bidswitch to optimize advertisement relevance and ensure that the visitor does not see the same ads multiple times. The cookie is also used to ensure relevance of the video-advertisement to the specific user. This cookie is used to collect information on the visitor. This allows the website to register the visitor’s behaviour and facilitate the social media sharing function provided by Addthis.com. This is used for measurement of advertisement efforts and facilitates payment of referral-fees between websites. You have a choice in who uses your data and for what purposes.

Jake Daniels has been praised for his decision to come out as Britain's only openly gay active male professional footballer by the player who helped inspire ...

England striker-turned television presenter Gary Lineker said he expected the player to receive widespread support within his own team dressing room and more widely in the game. Meanwhile, Stonewall director Liz Ward said: “Our rainbow laces campaign has taught us that, while there is still a way to go, attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in sport are changing. “Now is the right time to do it,” he said. It’s touching to see the millions of people that my story has impacted and inspired around the world, and to see it help evolve the world game at all levels is fantastic. Now, I am just confident and happy to be myself finally.” This world and the game of football has a place for everyone.

Jake Daniels has kickstarted a positive change in football, says Thetford Town player-manager Matt Morton, after the Blackpool forward earned praise a.

“He said it felt quite intimidating. “It’s language that people have been used to using since the school playground, so it just becomes second nature. “Unfortunately part of the problem is people will throw about insults saying ‘you’re gay, you’re this, you’re that’, without genuinely meaning to be homophobic. “I’ve known my whole life that I’m gay,” the youngster wrote. “And my Dad was going from bar to bar with his mates and he said about the amount of people that were picking on him because he was wearing a rainbow scarf around his neck. “I remember my Dad was at a Newcastle game and me and my brothers bought my Dad a scarf, a multi-coloured scarf, and my uncle is gay.

Despite the inevitable backlash he will face from less enlightened sections of football grounds across the country, the Blackpool player has chosen to live ...

So much so that it’s hard to comprehend the grand sum of all that lost opportunity and youthful years spent in fear. The most tragic part of my story is that it’s far from unique. I’d often getting in trouble for skipping class, but I was more willing to face the scorn of teachers and the inevitable punishments than be in a changing room where terms like ‘f*g’ or ‘that’s gay’ were thrown around like they meant nothing.

The Blackpool FC forward is the first male professional player in the UK to come out since Justin Fashanu in 1990. Fashanu took his own life eight years later, ...

Huge respect to you, Jake, and to your club and teammates for supporting you.” I am ready to be myself, be free and be confident with it all.” The Blackpool FC forward is the first male professional player in the UK to come out since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

Justin Fashanu came out as gay in 1990. Why — many have wondered — has it taken this long? What on earth, I say, did we expect? The Blackpool FC player, ...

Dales spent a year trying to get the FA to deal with his complaint. Max Clifford — once the grand fromage of celebrity PR, now a convicted sex offender — revealed he stopped two players from coming out, because football “remains in the dark ages, steeped in homophobia”. And how does it stay that way? The right to marry the person you love. The football industry deserves much of the blame. The right not to be sacked for being gay. The right to fight for your country.

The 17-year-old has become the only current active openly gay professional footballer.

With Daniels being the only current active openly gay professional footballers in the UK, Donnelly believes that football has to embark on a learning curve for how to approach the subject of homosexual players coming out. Former footballer Justin Fashanu become the first active openly gay professional footballer in the 1990's and now Daniels has followed in his footsteps. Daniels made his first-team debut on the final day of the Championship side at Peterborough United and has now felt the time is right to become the first active footballer to open up about being gay.

Jake Daniels' decision to come out will allow more men in professional football to be open about their sexuality, according to Simone Pound, ...

Pound believes that this generation may also benefit from the years of work in bringing anti-discrimination to the fore in football. There is hope that Daniels may be a harbinger of a new era. Daniels is the UK’s first active male professional footballer to be open about his homosexuality since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

Stop talking about sports as bastions of homophobia. Sports are widely supportive of gay athletes who come out.

Outsports has run the coming out stories of hundreds and hundreds of athletes. Even of the respondents in the “big five” men’s sports — football, baseball, basketball, soccer and hockey — over 92% said their teammates’ responses to them coming out were “neutral” at worst (that number was 95% across genders and sports). When professional athletes come out publicly, like Daniels did, there is a part of me that gets angry. The people in sports — the ones who matter the most — widely embrace gay teammates, friends and family members when they come out. It’s false and completely misses the reality today of Western culture and what it means to be a professional athlete. Stars of the sport, powerful institutions in the game and world leaders have expressed full support for Daniels, as they did for Cavallo, Martin and Rogers before him.

Blackpool forward, 17, is the UK's only openly gay male professional footballer.

In September 2020, a gay Premier League footballer revealed that he was too scared to publicly come out because he felt that football has not “moved on” compared to the rest of society. The Justin Fashanu Foundation said “issues around his sexuality were at the heart of his problems and there is no question that the prejudice he encountered eventually led to his death”. In a tweet, Boris Johnson thanked Daniels for his bravery and for taking the “huge courage” to come out. Players across France wore the special shirts in an “expression of solidarity” to mark today’s International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. “What he has just done took incredible courage,” he added. Blackpool’s Jake Daniels has become the UK’s first male professional footballer to come out as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

While older fans praise teenager's courage, younger people wonder why football is so behind the times.

As the manager of a gay bar in Leeds, she found the news “positive, but slightly bizarre in this day and age”. She said: “Football is the only sport that hasn’t caught up with the times, and it needs to – quickly. He went on to explain how the decision to come out had already improved his performance and mental health. If this is the first step towards it doing that then great.” “I’m one of 10 kids, and I have a gay brother and a gay sister,” she said. Fashanu, who was frequently the target of malicious comments and crowd abuse relating to his sexuality, killed himself in 1998. It is a sentiment many people in Blackpool share.

It is phenomenal to see the support the Blackpool player has had after coming out. Now he needs good people around him.

But, at the same time, I have a career and want to be known for being good at my job. There may be incidents in the future and we have to be prepared for that. You go public because you want to help so many other people out there who you don’t know, those who are still afraid to say what they feel. It’s always other people who inspire you, who give you the confidence until it’s your turn to do it. That’s when you need to have confidence. That’s when you have to be strong. That’s why you need to explain to people, talk to people, help them to understand. But I hope he’s got good people around him, people who are also able to say no when the requests come in from all around the world. He’s at a stage of his career where he’s just signed a professional contract, he’s played a few minutes in the Championship and will probably play more next season. Because coming out is such a personal decision, a life-changing experience, and you have to understand when is the right moment. I tried to prepare for it. Or someone at the very start of his professional career, such as Jake Daniels, who plays for Blackpool in the Championship? That Jake is the first is a huge step forward, but the fact it’s such big news is also something the media needs to reflect on.

JACK GAUGHAN: You will know Jake Daniels by now. He is 17, he is Blackpool academy's top scorer with 30 goals and a Blackpool supporter.

I hope this has allowed people to have a conversation and learn.’ It’s fantastic, I feel pride that Jake is a Blackpool player.’ A third of Troy’s workshop is about homophobia and coming out. ‘Football has catching up to do. Daniels hopes more will follow his lead and that this prompts lasting change rather than just a few wholesome tweets. He then bounced from Leyton Orient to non-league Southall and then Leatherhead, a semi-pro club. Elsewhere in the sport, one of the highest-profile male football players to publicly come out as gay since Fashanu is German footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger. Or of any year. Cavallo became the first known current top-flight male football player in the world to come out as gay in October 2021. The first professional football player to come out as gay was Justin Fashanu who came out in 1990. A serious knee injury took him to the US for treatment and he played for a handful of North American sides before he returned to England in 1990. - The town of Blackpool are proud of Daniels who is to blaze a trail for gay players

Blackpool defender Marvin Ekpiteta has apologised for historical homophobic social media posts which have left him embarrassed in the wake of team-mate Jake ...

Throughout this period, I have developed and grown as a person. "I want to wholeheartedly apologise for the offensive and completely inappropriate language I used, and for the sentiments I expressed. Following Daniels' announcement, which had been greeted with widespread support, homophobic posts made by Ekpiteta from 2012 and 2013 were highlighted; "I want to wholeheartedly apologise for the offensive and completely inappropriate language I used," said Ekpiteta