Sports Interactive has announced that Football Manager 2018 will be the first iteration of the series to include gay players.

 

There are around 4,000 professional footballers in the UK but none are openly gay. Speaking with the BBC, game director Miles Jacobson said he was hoping to "normalize the issue". Part of the reason we decided to do this is because there are gay footballers," he said. 

 

"We know from the amount of professionals that there has to be players who are gay but feel they don't want to come out. I find it weird that it's still a problem in football so we decided to try and show people that coming out isn't a big deal and can be a positive thing. I just think it's crazy that in 2017 we are in a world where people can't be themselves."

 

In Football Manager 2018 the players who will come out as gay will be the procedurally generated ones which appear when real-life players retire in the game. Importantly, Jacobson says, when a player comes out it won't actually be a big deal in the simulation.

 

In 1998 Justin Fashanu, the first openly gay professional footballer, took his own life eight years after coming out. In the United States, Los Angeles Galaxy defender Robbie Rogers is the only openly gay player in American professional sports.