As a 17-year-old footballer I would never have dreamed of coming out – Jake Daniels is my hero

In a breathless few minutes, my gay football team’s WhatsApp group went from relative calm to a flurry of exclamation marks, clappy hands and heart emojis.

Scrolling to the top, I stopped. This wasn’t the usual sassy nonsense that jabbers on for 30 messages; this was a game-changer.

A Blackpool player had just told the world he is gay on Sky Sports.

‘HUGE!!’ bellowed one in the group. Another joked that everyone would be immediately following him on social media.

Who was this guy, Jake Daniels? A 17-year-old striker who’d barely broken into a Championship side whose uninspiring season saw them finish in the bottom half of the table. 

Unremarkable, and yet utterly remarkable.

I watched his interview and the moment caught in my throat. As my eyes began to water, I tried to make sense of what I was feeling.

I’m a 40-year-old homo who loves football. I played in the park every night after school.

My childhood revolved around Ceefax results on a Saturday afternoon (Jeff Stelling was but an apple in Sky’s eye). I remember crying when a friend lost my football over the church gates. 

I remember beer shirt sponsors, keeping a four-league wallchart in my bedroom, and an older kid who’d called me fluky on the pitch and me thinking it meant wonderful. 

But then I also remember Justin Fashanu.

Or do I? Justin Fashanu was the first Black player to command a £1million transfer fee, but in 1990 he became the first to come out as gay.

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His career, already on the slide, never recovered. Short stints at clubs in England were marred by jokes from teammates and taunts from opposing fans. 

While his brother John was howling ‘Awooga!’ down the lens