A group of gay professional footballers is planning to come out in May.

According to the Preussiche Allgemeine Zeitung, the professional footballers will come out as gay in 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia. This is also the Friday before the final weekend of the Bunedsliga football season.

Former footballer Marcus Urban who came out as gay after retiring and is a co-founder of Diversio said that “May 17 is an offer, a date on which you can make yourself visible and come out together as a group.

“‘There is controversy there. Do I still want to wait until the world of football becomes the way I want it to be? Why should I wait? An interesting dynamic has come into play, you can see that people’s minds are starting to move and are thinking about whether it really makes sense to continue to hide and deny themselves.”

It is understood that the footballers’ individual teams are aware of their division.

Justin Fashanu was the only English gay player to come out. He committed suicide in 1998.

In 2022 the Sun reported that two male Premier League players were in a relationship. If they were, they were never named of come out publicly.