Prince William has praised U.K. soccer star Jake Daniels after the 17-year-old came out as gay earlier this week.
“Football should be a game for everyone,” the 39-year-old monarch wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “What Jake has done takes courage and will hopefully help break down barriers that have no place in our society. I hope his decision to speak openly gives others the confidence to do the same.”
The Duke of Cambridge also shared a tweet posted by Daniels’ team, Blackpool FC, in which the player writes about his sexuality.
“This season has been a fantastic one for me on the pitch. I’ve made my first-team debut, scored 30 goals for the youth team, signed my first professional contract and shared success with my teammates, going on a great run in the FA Youth Cup and lifting the Lancashire FA Pro-Youth Cup,” Daniels wrote in a statement posted on his club’s website.
“But off the pitch I’ve been hiding the real me and who I really am. I’ve known my whole life that I’m gay, and I now feel that I’m ready to come out and be myself,” he added.
Daniels officially came out in an interview for Sky Sports that was published on Monday, making him the first currently active professional soccer player in the U.K. to come out since Justin Fashanu in 1990.
Fashanu, who was posthumously inducted into the English Hall of Fame at the National Football Museum in Manchester in February 2020, died by suicide in 1998 at the age of 37 — eight years after coming out in a national newspaper.
Daniels’ courageous statement quickly made headlines around the globe, earning the young player praise from fans, rival teams, fellow athletes, Hollywood stars, and now the second in the line of succession to the British throne.
Last year, another international soccer star was also applauded for his decision to come out.
Australia’s Josh Cavallo shared a video on his social media accounts in late October saying that “growing up, I always felt the need to hide myself, you know, because I was ashamed [that] I would never be able to do what I loved and be gay.”
The then-21-year-old Adelaide United midfielder later told the BBC that after “fighting with my sexuality” for six years, he “couldn’t be happier” with his decision to come out.
