{"id":168794,"date":"2025-03-19T10:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T10:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/openly-gay-a-league-player-josh-cavallo-receives-daily-death-threats\/"},"modified":"2025-03-19T10:15:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T10:15:00","slug":"openly-gay-a-league-player-josh-cavallo-receives-daily-death-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/openly-gay-a-league-player-josh-cavallo-receives-daily-death-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Openly gay A-League player Josh Cavallo receives daily death threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A-League footballer Josh Cavallo says he still receives daily death threats more than three years after publicly revealing he was gay.<\/p>\n

Cavallo was professional men\u2019s football\u2019s first openly gay player after coming out in 2021.<\/p>\n

And while the 25-year-old Adelaide United squad member said it was the \u201cbest decision\u201d he ever made to come out, it has come with \u201csad\u201d consequences.<\/p>\n

Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer<\/a>.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s multiple, multiple, multiple death threats that come my way daily still, and it\u2019s quite sad to see,\u201d Cavallo told FIFPRO\u2019s Footballers Unfiltered podcast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the world of football, being an openly gay player is a very toxic place. It\u2019s something that not everyone would be able to handle and go through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think we\u2019re a very, very long way from acceptance in this space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to say to people \u2018absolutely, come out, be yourself\u2019. It also comes with a mountain of downsides as well that I don\u2019t think people realise.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/amp-img>
Josh Cavallo says he receives daily death threats. Picture: Tricia Watkinson<\/span>Source: News Corp Australia<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, Cavallo has no regrets about coming out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got to a point in my life where I wanted to live authentically. I felt quite stuck and it did affect my mental health quite a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the best move and decision I\u2019ve ever made. I\u2019m proud of myself, the people around me, my support network and how we\u2019ve correlated and changed things around football, but we also have to realise there\u2019s still a long way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cavallo said the assumption that gay men were \u201cweaker\u201d and \u201cnot masculine\u201d needed to be challenged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means they\u2019re not going to be at their best, that means they\u2019re not going to be the best footballer, and it has such a negative connotation to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/amp-img>
He has no regrets about coming out. Picture: @joshua.cavallo<\/span>Source: Supplied<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFor me, showing weakness or showing something about yourself that you don\u2019t think is the<\/p>\n

strongest point doesn\u2019t actually bring you down. It leads you into growing, growing into being a better person, growing into being a better player, (and) doing things that will improve your<\/p>\n

game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad now I can step on the field and I can be who I am and in the competition of<\/p>\n

Australia in the A-League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t come across anyone on the field that uses it in a negative way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cavallo is yet play this season in the A-League, with his Adelaide United contract set to expire in June.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A-League footballer Josh Cavallo says he still receives daily death threats more than three years after publicly revealing he was gay. Cavallo was professional men\u2019s football\u2019s first openly gay player after coming out in 2021. And while the 25-year-old Adelaide United squad member said it was the \u201cbest decision\u201d he ever made to come out, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[30175,57649,607,57650,20054,83,57648,3899,2895,57652,57651,57647],"class_list":{"0":"post-168794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-a-league","9":"tag-acceptance","10":"tag-adelaide","11":"tag-adelaide-sa","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-fifpro","15":"tag-josh-cavallo","16":"tag-newswire-sport","17":"tag-sa","18":"tag-sexuality","19":"tag-threats"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}