"I hated it, Tony Powell says on a spring afternoon in Los Angeles of his past as a secretly gay professional footballer for Bournemouth and Norwich in the 1970s. Powell is 78 and now lives in a very different world compared with when he was a husband, the father of two young daughters and Norwich's player of the season in 1979."
"I just wanted to be who I am, but at that time it was not a good idea to come out. Powell and I are joined by Robbie Rogers, the former USA international who played briefly for Leeds and Stevenage in 2012-13. Rogers is 40 years younger than Powell but, as a gay man and former professional footballer, he understands such hurt with bruising clarity."
"I kept it completely secret. I was so afraid it would get out and I'd have no control and people would be whispering in the locker room. I wanted to come out and tell a really intimate secret to my family and the people I loved first and not for it to be in the news."
Tony Powell, 78, played as a central defender for Bournemouth and Norwich in the 1970s while secretly hiding his gay identity. He lived as a husband and father, achieving player of the season status at Norwich in 1979, but endured decades of pain concealing his true self. Robbie Rogers, a former USA international who played for Leeds and Stevenage in 2012-13, came out publicly thirteen years ago through social media. Both men represent an exceptionally small group of male professional footballers in England who have had the courage to come out as gay. Justin Fashanu, Powell's former Norwich teammate, was the first male footballer to publicly come out in 1990.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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