Chelsea F.C. appoints LGBTQ+ ally Liam Rosenior as head coach
He has previously written and spoken publicly about discrimination in football and the impact of language and culture on gay and bi players
By Callum Wells
Chelsea F.C. has appointed LGBTQ+ ally Liam Rosenior as the club’s head coach.
Rosenior made more than 140 Premier League appearances during his playing career with Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton. He moved into coaching in 2018 and has also worked in sports media, including as a columnist for the Guardian.
He has previously written and spoken publicly about discrimination in football and the impact of language and culture on gay and bi players.
“We need to work towards enabling a culture where a footballer can be famous, gay and proud” – Liam Rosenior writing in the Guardian
Rosenior is the son of former striker Leroy Rosenior, who was awarded an MBE in 2019 for work addressing discrimination in football and wider society. Leroy Rosenior played during the 1980s and 1990s and was a teammate of Justin Fashanu at West Ham. Fashanu became the first professional footballer to come out as gay shortly after leaving the club.
In his media work, Liam Rosenior has supported Colin Kaepernick’s decision to kneel during the US national anthem at NFL games and has described an incident in Miami in which a police officer refused to help him report a lost passport, claiming a Black man could not be British.
Rosenior has also appeared on Sky Sports programming to discuss the Rainbow Laces campaign.
Writing in the Guardian, he said: “We need to do more than wear rainbow laces, we need to work towards enabling a culture where a footballer can be famous, gay and proud.”
“There is a culture of winning, and those are the values and traditions I want to uphold” – Rosenior in his first message to supporters
In the UK, Jake Daniels and Zander Murray have publicly come out as gay but are not currently active in the professional game. Josh Cavallo, who previously played in Australia, is now with seventh-tier Stamford AFC. There are not believed to be any openly gay or bi players currently contracted to men’s professional clubs worldwide.
Rainbow Laces has been discontinued by The FA and the Premier League. The Premier League is planning a new Pride activation in early February, during LGBT+ History Month and the Football v Homophobia Month of Action.
In his first message to supporters, Rosenior said: “There is a culture of winning, and those are the values and traditions I want to uphold.”
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