Image courtesy of Reuters
What does it take to become a role model in sports? For some, an outstanding career. Breaking records, amassing championships, being the Most Valuable Player. But in a contemporary setting, being a role model means more than just dominating the game. Professional athletes are in a unique position to showcase trends and norms, to create a standard of culture on and off the field. Similarly, this unique position gives athletes the power to defy stereotypes that have long existed within the structure of their sport, and to showcase these objections on a world stage. This modern phenomenon is seen in a multitude of ways, from debates around touchdown celebrations in the National Football League (NFL) to the more extreme controversies surrounding the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
And where exactly do more serious topics, like politics and sexuality, fit into all this? Are they checked at the security gate of the stadium and excluded from the culture that athletes create? What about when they’re inseparably tied, when the players kneel during the anthem, when they demand discussion? It is in this way that athletes position themselves as role models beyond their sport. Through the combining of real-world conversations and the formation of culture that happens on the field, professional athletes are given the opportunity to shape the way the international environment understands these abstract, heavy conversations.
There has traditionally been a gender divide in the way professional sports approach these topics, specifically around conversations about sexuality. In the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), for example, gay women– and Black gay women, which is even more remarkable– share their lives with us on the sport’s biggest stage. As a gay basketball fan myself, I recognize the rarity of having many openly gay idols in my favorite sport: Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner. For years, they have shown young, aspiring gay female athletes that they can make it big, and that they deserve to.
Unfortunately for young gay male athletes, the idols are fewer. In some men’s sports, soccer historically being one of them, authentic conversations on sexuality are virtually non-existent. What does it take for that to change?
On Monday, February 13, Czech Republic’s Jakub Jankto came out via an earnest video posted to his social media accounts. The third active male soccer player, and some claim the highest-profile one, to come out, ever. Jankto is currently playing for the Czech Republic’s AC Sparta Prague club, on loan from Spanish club Getafe, where he will return next season. He has been a part of the Czech national team since 2017 and has made 45 appearances for them at the international level.
In his post, Jankto speaks in English, in front of a black backdrop: “Like everybody else, I have my strengths. I have my weaknesses. I have a family. I have my friends. I have a job which I have been doing as best as I can, for years, with seriousness, professionalism and passion. Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom. Without fears. Without prejudice. Without violence. But with love. I am homosexual and I no longer want to hide myself.”
Jankto has been publicly supported not only by his teams, but by FIFA, the global players’ union, Fifpro, and the United European Football Association (UEFA). International superstar Neymar has also applauded Jankto, saying, “Every human being should be free to do whatever they want. You cannot forbid anyone to be what they want to be. You have to be free.”
Regardless of fans’ sexuality, Jankto’s announcement is momentous for the soccer community. Alex Kay-Jelsi from The Athletic puts it succinctly: “Jankto is a bigger test for a game that so often recently has you wondering if it is making progress or not when it comes to supporting minority groups.” Not only does the sport itself have to grapple with its own past reputation, as Kay-Jelsi notes, but it will inevitably start a chain reaction in which an entire community of soccer fans will have to confront their prejudices.
While the Czech Republic is typically deemed one of the safer locations for LGBTQ+ people in Europe, attributed to its nightlife and tourist culture, homosexuality is still not entirely legally condoned. Registered partnerships have been legal since 2006, but a bill protecting same-sex marriage died in Parliament prior to the country’s 2021 elections. Registered partners cannot legally adopt children. Gender confirming surgery has to first be approved by the Ministry of Health and is then subject to a host of bureaucratic and medical steps before reaching the surgery itself. Czech president Miloš Zeman has been disgustingly transphobic on-record. Not to mention surrounding countries like Poland or Hungary where homosexuality is outright illegal.
Image courtesy of Out Magazine.
And yet, Jakub Jankto has come out. In an interview he did with Czech publication Radiožurnál, Jankto alludes to his predecessors, stating that instead of coming out post-retirement, “I told myself that I don't want to quit because of this and that I want to set a positive example for other people as well. That despite a different orientation, you can normally continue working.”
For a person as high-profile as Jankto, the announcement isn’t as easy as it seems. When asked by the journalist if he consulted anyone in his decision to come out, Jankto responded, “Of course, if you make such a statement, you have to somehow prepare the coming out. I didn't want it to look unprofessional. I wanted it to have some form. Several people from Sparta helped me a lot. [AC Sparta Coach] Brian Priske also really supported me in my decision. Sparta's reaction was generally very positive and I thank them all very much.”
Jankto also mentioned that he felt wholly supported by his teammates, adding, “We told ourselves that nothing was changing and that we would continue as normal… If you spend every day together in the same cabin and then go somewhere together after the match, of course those people will become close to you and friendship will arise. That's why I needed to tell them too.”
Yet, it’s not just the internal reaction Jankto was looking to manage. When on an international stage, he has to consider the impact on the entire community. Jon Holmes, from UK-based advocacy group Sports Media LGBT+, said for Radio Prague International: “For him to step forward, and not only come out to friends and family and teammates, is essentially to help other people, to be a figurehead, to let others know that they’re not alone– that takes on a massive element of courage. We have to respect the immense sense of responsibility that he’s taken on.”
Holmes has it exactly right. When Jankto decided to come out, he propelled himself to the top of a very short list of role models in the gay male sports community. He recognizes the few who have taken the same risk before him and embraces the role that comes with his bravery. As much as the decision was centered around his happiness, it’s impossible not to recognize the meaning of it beyond Jankto himself. Public figures are under constant scrutiny regarding their sexuality– too sexual, not sexual enough, too gay, not gay enough– or are entirely gaslit on their identities to begin with. For Jankto to be proud in spite of– and perhaps in light of– this pressure only adds to the importance of his announcement and the (hopefully) positive fodder it will add to this discourse.
Though I’m quick to emphasize the uniqueness of Jankto’s situation, I’m aware that in the process I am sensationalizing him, his sexuality, and his decision to make that public. By no means am I declaring Jankto the gay icon of the male soccer community, or any icon of any community. To do so would be unfair to other gay soccer players, like Jake Daniels and Robbie Rogers, who likewise risked their careers to be themselves.
But I am saying that Jankto can be a role model like never before. Kay-Jelsi ends his article posing the essential question that comes from this event: “Will the game be there for him in the weeks and months after the love hearts, congratulations and clapping emojis fade into internet history?” It is my hope that yes, it will be. It has been done in the NFL and the NBA, in that Michael Sam and Jason Collins are commonly considered pioneers for gay athletes in the 21st century. Soccer’s pervasiveness worldwide certainly presents it more challenges: the varying legality of sexuality across countries and larger platforms for mistreatment are obstacles that Jankto will have to face. FIFA, UEFA, and other organizations have to decide whether their support is performative or if they will embed institutional protections for everyone. Yet it is the goal that despite these challenges, the international soccer community will come together to uplift Jankto and ensure him the same platform and career as it would anyone else. Because isn’t that what sports are all about?