Germany's Mario Gomez Urges Players To Come Out
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Tuesday, 04 January 2011 05:48
Former German footballer of the year Mario Gomez has spoken publically about the importance of gay players being out. Naturally this has led some to question his own sexual orientation.
Gomez stated in an interview he felt being open about their sexual orientation would boost their performance. “They would play as if they had been liberated,” he said. “Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic.”
He went on to point out Germany has many gay role models that should encourage others to be out and proud. “We’ve got a gay vice-chancellor (Guido Westerwelle); the Berlin mayor (Klaus Wowereit) is gay. So professional footballers should own up to their preference,” he concluded.
At the present time, there are no openly gay professional German footballers. In 1997, Marcus Urban became the only German professional player to come out to his teammates, and then he immediately ended his career. In 2007 he went public with his experience, in the hopes of encouraging other gay athletes, trainers, and coaches to be open to help change the general atmosphere of German sports.
And hey — having run a number of photos of European athletes modeling various high-end underwear, I will take the high road and include a photo of Mr. Gomez modeling for Hugo Boss. Hugo decided instead of making German footballers strip down, they would take a different approach and spruce them up instead — check out how nicely Mr. Gomez cleans up while he models Hugo Boss clothes and cologne.
But hey — I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t share a shirtless shot of Mario on the field…
