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Frank Lampard on gay football players: 'I would love it if someone came out and everyone treated it with respect'

'I feel it in the dressing room,' the former England midfielder said. 'There’s a different feel about it.'

Jenn Selby
Tuesday 07 April 2015 09:47 BST
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Frank Lampard has challenged existing ideas that footballers are all “macho”, suggesting that attitudes towards sexuality on and off the pitch have changed significantly.

The former England midfielder was asked by Alan Carr on his Chatty Man show whether the British public would ever be likely to “see a gay footballer”.

“Statistically there should be loads,” Carr said. “One in ten are gay aren’t they? Fifty-thousand professional footballers, one of them must be.”

“I think a lot of the problem is, as you say, it’s a fact that it will be out there, as it is in all modern life at all times, but I think we are probably at fault as a sport,” Lampard replied.

“I think that it’s that old syndrome where it’s a man’s game and you can’t talk about that. I have to say the game’s changing a lot.

“There are a lot of campaigns. I feel it in the dressing room. There’s a different feel about it.

Thomas Hitzlsperger, who played for Aston Villa, also came out ahead of his retirement in 2014.

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