NBA legend John Amaechi reveals number of gay Premier League stars who are too scared to come out

NBA legend John Amaechi has revealed he knows a number of gay Premier League stars who are too scared to come out, according to The Sun.

He said that the footballers did not feel they would receive the support of their club’s management team if they made their sexuality public.

According to Amaechi, several of the players he knows had told their families and in some cases team-mates but did not feel comfortable telling the wider world.

Justin Fashanu was the last player to come out while still playing in this country, in 1990.

Former Aston Villa, West Ham and Everton midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger and Robbie Rogers, who was at Leeds United, are the most recent to announce that they were gay but did it after leaving their English clubs.

Speaking to the culture, media and sport select committee’s Amaechi said: “I am in contact with quite a few sportsmen.

“I think it’s important to say some are Premier League football players.

“For them there are multiple issues. Some of them feel that their team specifically would not be supportive — their team management not their team-mates, ie the coaches, the club, the administration around them.

“They even know them to be overly hostile by having stood in conversations with them or overheard conversations.

“It’s interesting how many of the people I know are out, to a greater or lesser extent, to their family and friends and a selection of their team-mates.

“For many it is an issue of identity. Sport is one of the few areas of life where your occupation becomes your definition, what you do is who you are.

In February 2007, after his retirement from the NBA, Amaechi became the first former NBA player to come out publicly as gay after doing so in his memoir Man in the Middle.

Since then he has been regarded as "one of the world's most high-profile gay athletes.”