Even ten years after Thomas Hitzlsperger came out, homosexuality in football is still a taboo. Marcus Urban was the first ex-professional player to come forward. In the interview he explains why homosexual players are afraid of positioning – and what May 17, 2024 should change that.
Ten years ago, ex-national player Thomas Hitzlsperger made it public for the first time that he was gay. Since then, no professional football player in Germany has come out – but a group coming out has been announced for May 17, 2024, allegedly by several professional players. Marcus Urban is working on the initiative that is preparing the deadline; he knows from his own experience what is at stake. Long before Hitzlsperger, Urban was the first German football player to come out.
Urban was considered a great talent in the GDR; at Rot-Weiß Erfurt he played in the youth league with future stars such as Steffen Freund, Bernd Schneider and Thomas Linke. But before his career could really take off, he gave up: the pressure to hide his sexuality was too great. Out of fear of reprisals, discrimination and rejection, Urban turned his back on professional business in the early 1990s when he was just in his early 20s.
Today he works as project manager for the campaign, with which he wants to give queer athletes the opportunity to position themselves publicly through a group coming out. Clubs such as Borussia Dortmund, FC St. Pauli, VfL Osnabrück, VfB Stuttgart, Union Berlin and SC Freiburg are taking part in the project. Urban is also a diversity coach and company founder. He wrote about homosexuality in professional sports and his own coming out in his biography “Hide and Seek”.
Mr. Urban, on January 8, 2014, Thomas Hitzlsperger spoke publicly about his homosexuality for the first time in the “Zeit”. That was ten years ago now. After him, no other professional came out. Has he football still a problem with gays?
Source: Stern
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
