Chelsea striker, Olivier Giroud, has said football needs to address its stigma towards homosexuality, for more professional players to come out.
Giroud stirred up controversy in 2012, when he posed on the cover of Tetu, France’s leading gay magazine and the 32-year-old believes a lot of work needs to be done before more professional footballers are able to come out.
Former Aston Villa midfielder, Thomas Hitzlsperger, is one of the few players to have made their homosexuality public and Giroud said he was touched by the German’s actions.
“It was very emotional,” he told Le Figaro.
“This is when I told myself that it was impossible to display his homosexuality in football.
“In a changing room, there is a lot of testosterone – rooming together, collective showers – it’s tricky but it’s like that.
“I understand the pain and the difficulty of guys coming out; it’s a real test after working on oneself for years. I am ultra-tolerant on it. When I was in Montpellier I was engaged in this fight by posing for [the magazine] Tetu.
“At Arsenal when they asked me to wear the ‘Rainbow Laces’ in support of the gay community, I did it. There is still a lot of work in the football world on this subject, to say the least.”
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