Marcus Urban, 54, the first male professional footballer in Germany to come out as gay, has claimed that closeted players across Europe’s top leagues are arranging “fake girlfriends” and “fake marriages” to conceal their sexuality.
Urban, who played for 16 years before publicly coming out in 2007, is now a spokesperson on LGBTQ+ issues in football. In an extract from Swiss broadcaster Andreas Boni’s upcoming book Mensch Fußballstar (Human Football Star), obtained by BILD, Urban discusses the pressures that keep gay players in the shadows. The book, which also features contributions from German legend Lothar Matthäus and FIFA president Gianni Infantino, is set for release on August 18.
Urban suggests that fears within the sport, rather than media or fan backlash, are the main reason players remain silent. “I think almost all the media would support it. Fans are no longer the problem. Clubs hardly are either. It’s more about the internal climate these days,” he said.
He also alleged that there are organized systems in place within football to hide players’ sexuality, including staged relationships and agencies that arrange sexual encounters. “The players’ agents sometimes organize this for their clients and then have the players in their hands,” Urban claimed.
Urban believes there are gay couples in the Bundesliga but says they remain reluctant to go public. Last year, he co-founded Diversero, a global diversity community, and supported plans for a group of players in Germany to come out on May 17, 2024 a plan that was ultimately abandoned after advisors, family members, and legal teams warned against it.
“The players are repeatedly thwarted in their desire for freedom,” Urban said. “There were some who wanted to come out, but too many people around them projected their own fears and misguided ‘care’ onto them.”
