Shortly before landing in Barcelona, in February 1982, the footballer Cléo Hickman had starred in an explicit photo shoot in the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo. The photos spread the rumor in Spain that the footballer was homosexual. So, weeks later, Hickman was walking down the aisle with a woman who wasn’t even his girlfriend, no family or friends, but with Joan Gaspart and Josep Lluís Núñez present in the room. The story was told by Gaspart himself in the program ‘The others‘ from Movistar: “I went to see the player and asked him about these photos. He told me: ‘Parties that we do in Brazil to have fun with friends. ‘ I told him that these photos could harm you and the club. I remember I said to him ‘Do you have a girlfriend?’ and he answered ‘No, a cousin of mine …’. Well, tell him to come that you are going to get married and we are going to disassemble this ”.
Apparently, the love between Hickman and his ‘cousin’ ended up triumphing, because love triumphs even in the most unreal settings – even with Joan Gaspart and Josep Lluís Núñez as wedding witnesses – but that is another story. The fact is that having a supposedly homosexual player in the ranks hurt a club in 1982, and it still does 40 years later. That is why in the middle of 2021 it is news that a 21-year-old boy who plays in the Australian first division, Joshua Cavallo, has publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. This is news because he is the first active professional player to do so. And it is news because he has revealed it in a video of enormous solemnity, as if he were confessing a crime.
Popular culture continues to consider soccer as something inherently masculine, understanding masculinity as heterosexuality. Homophobic language is still embedded in the football vernacular. And footballers continue to fear coming out of the closet and thus damaging their careers. So Joshua Cavallo has laid the first stone in a territory of predetermined molds and roles. We already know that paper always beats stone, but we also know that many stones can easily crush paper.
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