In February the former Leeds winger revealed his sexuality, then walked away from the game. In Robbie Rogers first interview since that decision, he explains his anger, and his hopes for the future.
“I started feeling very different and it was a case of, ‘All right, I’m good at football and I get attention from girls. Why don’t I want that? What’s wrong with me?’ I realised I was gay when I was 14 or 15. I was like, ‘I want to play football. But there are no gay footballers. What am I going to do?’
“You feel such an outcast. I just couldn’t tell anyone because high school in the States is brutal. You’re going through puberty and kids can be vicious. I was lucky my older sisters were cool people and I was the football guy. All these things made it easier to mask myself. But it was also difficult. You have girls coming on to you and you’re like, ‘Shit, it would be a lot easier if they weren’t interested and I could just play football.’ I kept saying: ‘I can’t go out because I have training today or a match tomorrow.'”
Read more : www.guardian.co.uk
Photo by Longbomb (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
