Maybe, but also not in every sport probably. The former coach of the German women soccer team once said that she could imagine about half of her team to be lesbian, but they were too afraid to come out. The German Soccer Association so far did nothing to ever tackle homophobia in both men and women soccer. Racism? Yes. Hooligans et al? Yes. Gender? Yes. Homophobia? No way.
After our national team's goalkeeper committed suicide a few weeks ago they said now they also wanted to focus on depression more, and in a sub-clause mentioned homophobia as well. But it didn't seem too genuine. He wasn't gay himself, and that wasn't the cause of his suicide. He suffered from depression between 2001 and 2004, went into long treatment, made it so far as to being able to live without medication even, but this summer or a bit earlier it came back. I assume they just tried to slip it under with tackling homophobia. Sort of good PR, but not risky for them. Quite pathetic. Though I hope it won't be like that.
There's more than 200 professional players in our top two leagues, but none has ever come out yet. Neither anyone of the retired. I'm not sure, but I also cannot remember any other German athlete who is openly gay. But well, it might just be that I don't know. So sports are an anomaly, statistically speaking. The mayors of our largest cities both are gay, our new foreign minister is gay, so many other top politicians are gay, and in the field of entertainment you sometimes ask yourself if there are even straight left. But our managers and sports stars all are not gay? But if I were in their shoes, I would probably also prefer a fake marriage. Sports are not really welcoming of homosexuals. Very sad.
As one coach said, it would need to be a larger number of players all coming out at once. But for a single player it's just too much to ask. Too much is at stake.
