Antony Cotton: There’s two gay players on every football team
Coronation Street star Anthony Cotton has claimed that there is on average “two or three” gay players on every football team.
The actor – who plays gay character Sean Tully on the soap – called for Premiership players to come out.
He told the Daily Star: “There are hundreds of gay footballers – hundreds of them, not one or two.
“If there are 22 footballers in a squad, by the law of average there will be two or three gay footballers in every single team.
“Do I know any gay footballers? Of course. We all know gay footballers, everyone knows a gay footballer.”
“A footballer’s gift is in their feet so they don’t have to speak… that’s a fundamental issue in what they do.
“They don’t have to speak, they don’t have to be spokesmen.”
Justin Fashanu was the first professional footballer in Britain to come out, in 1990, before he took his own life eight years later, aged 37.
Former Leeds United player Robbie Rogers came out in 2013, before retiring from English football and signing a deal with LA Galaxy.
German footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger also played for West Ham and Aston Villa before coming out as gay last year – after retiring from football.
