One of the things we’ve been waiting for for a while in America is an openly gay active pro athlete. (Post-career de-closeting has been the norm so far.) Sweden got one when soccer player Anton Hysen came out this past March. Now it looks like Hysen might be coming to play for the United States. Over at On Top magazine, they’ve translated some Swedish sports magazine for the news:
According to Sportsbladet, Hysen has been approached by Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs the Sporting Kansas City and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
“I talked with them and it looks good, I can say,” Hysen said. “They are interested. It was a good talk and they have said what they want.”
The second hot homo is David Testo, midfielder for the Montreal Impact and MVP in 2009, who came out last month in the Canadian press. He and the rest of his team are in a bit of a limbo right now—the whole roster has been released as they prepare to move from the North American Soccer League into the expanding Major League Soccer. And the North Carolina-born 30-year-old tells MLSSoccer.com that he’s not sure if he’s going to retire before next season:
“I really don’t know my future in soccer right now. I haven’t personally closed the door on Montreal, but we’ll see what happens. If I were to go somewhere else, a lot of circumstances would have to be in place. I’m not just going to pick myself up and go to a city where I don’t know people, or if I don’t know the organization.
“I definitely know that I come with a little bit of baggage, and maybe a club is hesitant to pick me up now because of all this. But if that’s the case, then I don’t want to play for that organization anyway.”
Now we just have to make Americans pay some attention to soccer. Perhaps we in the gay media can engineer a plot to unite these two on a team and set them up on some dates. That’d get the some more gays to tune in, at least.
Hysen photo via NickLansley’s Flickr; Testo photo via CompeteNetwork
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Cam
It’s soccer, your average straight American man pretty much thinks that they’re all gay already.
gerry
Ronaldo is next
gay4mls
Jason, that’s a pretty ignorant statement. Major League Soccer is the most diverse league you can find in America, and players have taken public pro-gay stances, including black player Michael Lahoud.
TommyOC
Hopefully with the NBC Sports contract in effect next year, more Americans will indeed watch soccer on television. Despite appearances, FOX Soccer gave MLS weak production support and ESPN, despite strong production support, gave it atrocious journalistic support and allowed its on-air talent to continue their ignorant and soccer-phobic commentaries. NBC, on the other hand,.went put of their way to secure the property. They intend to use it to showcase their production, reporting and online properties, all in an angle to secure a chunk of NFL rights when they go back to bid in a few years. This is great for the league.
But more people attend an MLS match than they do NBA and NHL (and, to be clear, save two stadiums number of seats is comparable). The highest selling jersey on the American sport scene is the Galaxy 23, the last championship match had great exposure and other big-market sports teams are seeing the value of grassroots fan development (see: any of the large supporters groups).
And to top it off, you’d be hard-pressed to find a teams brand- or name- recognition exceeding our borders. Maybe Kobe gets some love, and the Yankees have always bee’n synonymous with New York, but those teams aren’t the global commodities some would like you to think they are. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Galaxy is wrapping up a post-season tour of the Pacific tomorrow with a friendly in Melbourne, Australia. This past week, they have been greeted by adoring fans, they’ve put on clinics, visited orphanage, and been great ambassadors for their team, their city, their league and – most importantly – their country.
It’s only a matter of time before the rest of our sporting public catches up.
Chad
OMG!! Anton is such a hottie!! His complextion and blond hair and that beautiful beauty mark on his check. I could just kiss him nonstop. Whew!
Taylor
Maybe we shouldn’t focus as much on how attractive they are but perhaps be thankful that there is some progress being made in professional sports in general. And great job, Tommy! Good read.
stoopid louie
Who honestly thinks of soccer as a professional sport?
gay4mls
@stoopid louie: Your handle is truth in advertising. Earning millions of dollars a year and packing stadiums full of more fans than NBA or NHL makes you a professional.
Karen Kalpin
we SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO need gay people who are role models to STEP UP AND STEP OUT OF THE CLOSET! Rick Mercer had a rant on this not long ago and I agree w/ Rick. For young people to actually “believe” our “it gets better” message they need to see gay adults whom they admire step up and step OUT!
waiting on Anderson Cooper…………………….
iDavid
@Taylor, no. Speak for yourself dude, we will voice our own opinions as inspired.
@Chad, I totally agree with you.
@David Testosterone, you don’t come w “a little bit of baggage”, others have a bit of baggage around YOU. And yeh, fuck em if they are too backed up in their own sewer to see a diamond shining right in front if ’em.
ewe
The question should be if America will ever stop observing people they do not know playing sports. Spectator sports is not a physical activity.
ewe
I do not care about what people i do not know think about people they do not know playing with a ball.
NovaNardis
When you talk about “pro sports” in the USA, that really means the big four — MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL. I won’t dismiss MLS, but it isn’t nearly the same.
Also, there’s a difference in signing an out member from overseas, rather than someone already playing the sport coming out.
CBRad
Anton Hysen has such “straight face”.
Riker
@stoopid louie: The common definition of “professional” as it applies to sports means that the athletes live off of their earnings, and play in the top tier/league in their respective sports. MLS is, by definition, a professional sports league, just as much as the Premier league in the UK or Major League Baseball in the US.
jason
As individuals, some blacks can be very open-minded and fair. However, black culture is based on homophobia. Almost everything to do with black culture is about black men denying that they are attracted to men in any way, shape or form. The admired institutions within the black community are consistently gay-hostile.
Michael
Why aren’t American men more into soccer? Because there aren’t enough ‘tight ends’ and ‘wide receivers’. I was watching football this past weekend and was amazed how often the camera lingered on the player’s asses. Watching it in HD was definitely a bonus but give me a break. Those pants are by far the most ass-showing type of pants of ANYTHING.
gay4mls
@NovaNardis: Average attendance in latest complete season:
NFL: 66960
MLB: 30352
MLS: 17872
NBA: 17319
NHL: 17126
Time to start thinking of the “Big 5” or realize that soccer is surpassing sports like hockey in this country.
Mike in Asheville
@SEXXYJAMAICAN: Hey Sexxy, just thought I’d give you a 411 on jason: Poor jason was raised in such a fucked-up family he actually believes that ALL women are whores who use their sexuality to maintain their control — yes, he believes women control the world — over their underling men folk; that ALL “straight” men are bisexuals afraid to admit that they get woodies looking at other men and that ALL “gay” men are afraid to admit they can get hard with women; and that the black community is a solid bloc of homophobic bigots with a scattering of gay/bi men who don’t count.
Simply, Sexxy, you can’t argue with crazy, and crazy is what jason is. He sometimes sounds as though he does have a mental capability, and then exposes his true craziness.
I have used this line regarding others, it is so appropriate with jason: [William Shakespeare]: “I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.”
R.
I feel like the sorts of Americans who actually care about and follow pro-soccer would probably be fairly accepting of gays already. This’ll do just as much as having lesbians in the WNBA has done, which is to say, nothing.
What we need is an openly gay athlete in one of the big four leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA) – I think that will lead to real progress.
stoopid louie
@Mike in Asheville: I don’t know Jason, but as someone who grew up around black homophobia I more or less agree with his statement. He’s right about black attitudes toward gays, and if you think he’s such a racist with a fucked-up upbringing, then I challenge you to direct your next gay parade through a black neighborhood, and behold all the love they show for us. I suspect you know what the result would be, whether you choose to admit it or not.
Mel Gibson
@stoopid louie: You’re right. Aside from that, downlow black guys seem to be very homophobic. But, as are closet-cases in general.
SEXXYJAMAICAN
@stoopid louie: Please you can say that about any race of people, I’m tired of these tired ass hoes painting all black people with the same tired ass brush. I’m Jamaican so none of you people on Queerty can tell me anything about homophobia because I know what real homophobia is.. BTW I’m from ATLanta and it has a very large population of black folk and they have 2 pride events each year so fuck that shit you selling.
Mel Gibson
@CBRad: I need more info as to what it means to have gay face or straight face. I tend to agree with this theory, however. But, I want to be more skilled in this area.
Mike in Asheville
@stoopid louie: I did not say that there was not significant homophobia within black America — but there is also rampant homophobia within the various Hispanic communities, Asian Communities, Orthodox/Ultraorthodox Jews, Islamic Communities, Catholics, Southern Baptists, etc.
By generalizing against a whole community, the generalization smears the good work of good people. Among black America, the gay community, particularly with regard to marriage-equality, has not received more support words and efforts than those of Coretta Scott King and Julian Bonds — true civil rights heroes. (And yes, Bernice King shows that bigotry does survive even in a family of civil rights giants.)
For me, the only people I hate are haters. I have enjoyed the intimate company of men of all sorts — all ages, races, faiths, sizes, looks, types — so long as they are respective of my wants/desires as I am with theirs. The world would be such a better place if people put aside their prejudices and had sex instead.
CBRad
@Mel Gibson: I’m not sure I totally believe it, either. But I do hear gays say, “He has gay-face” about varied…(Like, I think Liberace was supposed to be the ultimate gay face?) it’s just my impression that the guy has “straight face” (which is fine, hot, etc) I guess it means…I wouldn’t guess he’s gay?….not sure
Mel Gibson
@CBRad: Well, I support this ‘face’ theory. I have seen men who I knew immediately were gay based on their face. There is a guy right now who is gay (bisexual), yet is dating a woman. He has gay face. He is gay. If you saw him you would agree based on his face. I think gay face may be the ‘shocked’ look gay men have. It’s a very wide-eyed, tense expression.
Mel Gibson
@CBRad: He has gay eyes and gay smile too. Gay hair as well. It’s highlighted.
CBRad
@Mel Gibson: Now I realize why he has straight face to me. He reminds me of what the actor Emilio Estevez used to look like.
Mel Gibson
@CBRad: He does look like Emilio.
iDavid
I think he has very gay eye lashes, but that’s about it.
iDavid
Wow, check out Anton Hysen’s youtube vid, he’s one seriously hot str8 style stud.
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DNc0uuOnUn1U&v=Nc0uuOnUn1U&gl=US
Kyle
@iDavid: What do you mean by gay eye lashes? Long eye lashes?
iDavid
@Kyle,
I was being facetious per Mel Gibson’s comment. I think Anton is quite masculine. Did you check out his video?
Mykey
@jason: hey jason, you are so on point! just what pple dont want to here
Mykey
@SEXXYJAMAICAN: it’s not that jason is saying all black people are homophobic, he’s saying the culture, i know u understand, coming from Jamaica, where even lesbians get killed (although being a lez is much more tolerated than being a gay male). Am sure someone from middle east, africa, parts of asia, the former soviet union states, will tell you the same! So don’t get too mad about it, plus am African!
jason
Did you know that, in Jamaica, female homosexuality is legal but male homosexuality isn’t? It’s true.
Jamaica is a rat-hole populated by retarded drug addicts who can’t even see the inconsistency in their own hatred.