Czech soccer player Jakub Jankto, 27, has declared his homosexuality on social media today, becoming one of the first soccer players to do so publicly. "I'm homosexual, and I don't want to hide any longer," the footballer on loan from Getafe to Sparta Prague said on his Twitter account.
In 2021 Australian Josh Cavallo became the first active professional footballer to come out as gay. Although he does not play in LaLiga, he is the first player belonging to a Spanish club to break this taboo and publicly affirm that he is gay.
"Like everyone else, I have my strengths and my weaknesses," says the player in a 44-second video in which he intends to "encourage other people." Likewise, he vindicates his desire to live his "life in freedom, without fear, without prejudice, without violence, but with love." And it is that Jankto is not having a good season at Sparta involved in problems in his private life after separating from his wife.
In the video, he also briefly recalled his life and professional career: "I have a family, I have friends, I have a job, which I try to do the best I can for years, with seriousness, professionalism and passion."
Signed by Getafe in the summer market of 2021 for about six million euros, this versatile footballer who can play on the left wing or even as a midfielder, played 15 League games and one Cup game with the Madrid team.
His debut as a starter was against Barcelona, on the second day of the League, but an injury prevented him from having all the expected continuity and last summer he went on loan to Sparta Prague.
Jankto, an international for his country's senior team since 2017 (45 matches), played between 2014 and 2021 for Italian Calcio (Ascoli, Udinese and Sampdoria), and then in the First Division with Getafe, with whom he has a contract until 2026.
Getafe has issued through its social networks a message of "maximum respect" towards the Czech player Jakub Jankto, who is on loan at Sparta Prague and who announced his homosexuality in a video on Monday.
"Our utmost respect and unconditional support for our footballer Jakub Jankto", asserted the Madrid club, to which Jankto arrived in 2021 and played fourteen games and which he loaned to Sparta Prague in 2022.
The Czech club acknowledges that its footballer "spoke openly about his sexual orientation with the board of directors, the coach and his teammates at the club some time ago." "Everything else refers to his personal life. There are no more comments. No more questions. You have our support. Live your life, Jacob. Nothing else matters," says Sparta.
Cavallo or Jankto are not the only examples of soccer players who have spoken about their sexual orientation. In 2014, the German Thomas Hitzlsperger came out of the closet a year after retiring from the pitch. Player of teams of the stature of West Ham, Evertos, Aston Villa, Lazio and Stuttgart, his case was one of the most mediatic in recent years.
In Spain, no player in the Spanish league has taken the step, although it is estimated that some 142 professional footballers would be gay -according to an estimate by the Socialist Party in 2021-. And beyond that, practically no LaLiga player has publicly shown his support for Jankto, another example of how far the men's league is from normalizing homosexuality. Something that is lived much more naturally in women's football, in fact, there are many international players who have congratulated Jankto for taking a step forward: Pernile Harder, Hedvig Lindahl or the Atlético de Madrid player Merel van Dongen, among others.
Although soccer is not the only sport afflicted by homophobia and stereotypes. Without going any further, the Real Canoe water polo player Víctor Gutiérrez denounced in 2021 having received racist insults from a rival player, the Serbian Nemanja Ubovic, who was punished with four games in the first sanction for homophobia in professional Spanish sport. Gutiérrez came out of the closet in 2016, on the cover of the magazine for the LGTBQ community Shangay. “That went around the world. Very few reveal anything like this, especially in team sports. It was positive! Suddenly, many were turning to me on social media to tell me about their experiences. I understood that I don't help anyone if I keep quiet. At this point, it is not normal that you cannot come out of the closet, ”he confessed in an interview with La Vanguardia.
