Jankto: I was expecting someone from the crowd to boo me at away games, but no one did. It’s great that everyone supports me

Jakub Jankto is the first professional football player who decided to come out. He quit Sparta in the summer of this year and now he is a footballer of Italian Cagliari, where he is not experiencing ideal moments yet. Now, in an interview with the BBC, he has opened up about his orientation and talked about what surprised him.

When he left Slavia Prague in 2014 and headed to Italy, many didn’t understand. After all, the home-grown model works here and a player is supposed to prove himself at home first and then leave.

Jankto didn’t listen to these opinions, he decided to leave and showed that this path can be the right one. He showed good performances on loan at Ascoli and continued them at Udinese.

But after two seasons at the club, he fell out with the management and headed to Sampdoria, where he later built on his performances again.

But in the summer of 2021 he made a transfer to Getafe and that was not a good choice. He played 14 league games in Spain, didn’t score a goal and in the summer he was looking at where to go to get his form back. He eventually chose Sparta, but even there he didn’t give the performance many expected of him.

He played 15 league games there, scoring one goal, but the spring affair ended his season prematurely. Sparta did not exercise the option and Jankto returned to Getafe. However, he did not stay there and returned to Italy, where he plays for Cagliari.

He started the season, but due to a coronavirus, he has been missing from his team for quite some time and Cagliari are languishing in last place in Serie A. Now, in an interview with the BBC, Jankto has returned to his orientation and explained what he has experienced throughout his life.

“I was 13 or 14 years old when I knew that something was not natural but different. You don’t think about it much as a child. But when I tried my first relationship with a girlfriend, it wasn’t like a boyfriend.

And then when I got into professional football teams, being gay is still considered abnormal and football is still a bit homophobic in my opinion,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

Eventually he decided to come out with the truth. Most of the reaction was positive, even so, after his move to Italy, he was worried about being the target of ridicule, but it didn’t come to that.

“I was expecting to be booed at away games, but nobody booed. It’s great that everyone supports me. I feel really great here,” he added.

After his recovery, he can focus on getting back on the pitch. According to his words, he would like to return to the national team as well, but he has a lot of work to do to achieve this goal.

Source: BBC