Frank Lampard enjoys a reputation for being a thoughtful and politically minded individual. It is a mark of how football has changed that he hasn't already been pegged as a homosexual as a result. Graeme Le Saux's Guardian reading ways sealed his fate just over two decades ago. Lampard's politics (like that of most footballers) tilt more to the right and he is a supporter of David Cameron.
In an interview on Alan Carr's Chatty Man, he was asked by the host, himself a son of Newcastle United Head Scout Graham Carr, about gay footballers.
I would love it if someone came out and everyone treated it with respect.
I think a lot of the problem is, as you say, it’s a fact that it will be out there, as it is in all modern life at all times, but I think we are probably at fault as a sport.
I think that it’s that old syndrome where it’s a man’s game and you can’t talk about that. I have to say the game’s changing a lot.
There are a lot of campaigns. I feel it in the dressing room. There’s a different feel about it.
I would love it if someone came out and everyone treated it with respect. You know that thing about ‘we’re macho we play football’, is very old hat.
Well said.
