Editorial: LGBT people are part of life; there is no one sector in which they don’t exist. However, there are sectors of life in which they don’t feel comfortable on being ‘out’, or indeed welcomed. Football is one sport, but there are others. Strides have been made to make it more welcoming, with various campaigns led by individual clubs and also by the football association, but to date there is not ‘gay and out’ footballer playing in the Premier league. We do have some LGBT teams in lower divisions of course.
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The Manchester City midfielder also told how he is enjoying life up north but admitted he will always consider himself a “Chelsea boy”
The Manchester City midfielder also told how he is enjoying life up north but will always consider himself a “Chelsea boy” because of his successful time at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard, 36, was asked about gay footballers on Channel 4’s Chatty Man when openly gay host Alan Carr insisted some Premier League footballers must be gay statistically.
Lampard replied: “We have had a couple come out afterwards. I think it is a fact they will be out there, they are in all lives and times, but we are at fault as a sport. It is that old syndrome where it is a man’s game and you can’t talk about that.
“I have to say the game is changing a lot, there are a lot of campaigns and I feel it in the dressing rooms. I would love it if someone came out and everyone treated it with respect.
“This silly thing that we are macho and we play football is very old hat.”
Appearing on the show to promote his Frankie’s Magic Football children’s books,Lampard also spoke about his time at Chelsea.
He said the fans and staff at Manchester City had embraced him, but he added: “I had 13 years at Chelsea and I will always be a Chelsea boy because I played there and have so many memories.
“They decided I was moving on and at 35 you are not going to fight that. If they want you to move on you move on. Then Manchester City came in for me. it was too good to turn down.
“At 36 not many people get asked to play for the champions of England at the time for five months.
“I have got such a great relationship with the Chelsea fans. It hasn’t broken it.
“I still have my main house in Chelsea and I go back to London a lot, I hope I won’t ever lose that, I don’t think I will.”
Asked about Jose Mourinho as a manager, he added: “He is brilliant. If you wanted to bottle a manager and get all the good bits in it, he has got them.
“I say that because he helped me in my career a huge amount. When he came I didn’t have that self confidence, I was 25, and he brought that out of me. And he does that with all the players he works with.
“He is very good at gauging a player and he knows if you need a b******ing he will give it to you individually or as a team on a day but if you need a little bit of love and niceness he does that as well.”
Frank admitted that he enjoyed celebrating his success with Chelsea, though his fiancee, TV presenter Christine Bleakley, did keep him in line.
He said: “Winning the champions league was the greatest acheivement. We celebrated on the pitch for an hour, we celebrated through the night and the next two or three days.
“And then I took it too far because about three or four days later I was on the sofa at home and I was struggling a little bit and Christine said ‘Frank, you need to stop celebrating this now. You need to get on with life!’.”
Frank also said his recent trip to New York had been successful and he thought he and Christine had found an apartment to live in after spending two days searching for the right home.
Of the New York City fans, he said: “They did chant a lot, they are very game and very keen. They have started a new club and you know what Americans are like, they are very positive and behind their team.
“The game we watched was a funny game and they didn’t play particularly well but the fans were all behind them. If there was a shot from anywhere they get really excited.”
Frank also hinted he could go into TV work or management after he retires. He said: “I’m in the back end of my career, whether I stay in football, I don’t really know.
“I will maybe do my coaching badges, that is two years worth of work to maybe be a manager.
“But I am not sure if I will go down that route or certain other routes, a bit of TV maybe, everyone is lining up to do it, that punditry thing. It looks easy but it is not that easy.”