After years of playing hide and seek
U19 coach of Bundesliga club comes out as gay
03/25/2026 – 05:17 amReading time: 3 minutes
St. Pauli’s U19 coach Dobrick publicly comes out as gay – and says what has cost him so much energy so far that his career has suffered.
Christian Dobrick, U19 coach FC St Paulihas publicly come out as homosexual – and combined his revelation with sharp criticism of top-class men’s football. “In professional football, gays are still considered aliens,” said the 29-year-old in interviews with Stern and RTL.
The Flensburg native, who has been working in the Hamburg Bundesliga club’s youth team since the summer of 2025, described how years of keeping quiet about his sexual orientation had worn him down. “This game of hide-and-seek cost me too much strength,” said Dobrick. He often had to perform “word acrobatics” and a “rhetorical egg dance” in order to conceal his life as a gay man – energy “that could actually have been invested in his job and sport.”
Dobrick doesn’t believe that this is an isolated case in football – but he does believe that the conditions in professional football are systematically suppressing the topic. “As far as the professional field is concerned, I suspect that there are significantly fewer gays there than the average population. Because the pressure in the industry is so great to lead a hetero-normative life. There are fewer gay footballers reaching the top because they have to waste their energy on problems that have nothing to do with the sport.”
In fact, homosexuality is still considered a largely taboo topic in men’s professional football. So far, no active professional in the top three German leagues has come out publicly – although fan representatives have been campaigning for a more open approach for years. In women’s football, however, a player’s sexual orientation no longer plays a role.
In his own words, Dobrick himself was “uncertain for a long time” whether he would ruin his career with his confession. He wants to work professionally at some point – and is still not completely clear about the consequences of his coming out. He also felt encouraged to take the step after meeting Jürgen Klopp. At a meeting with Salzburg’s young coaches – Dobrick previously worked for RB Salzburg, TSG Hoffenheim and Holstein Kiel – the former Bundesliga and Liverpool coach said: “You can be whoever you want as a coach, but you have to stand for something. You have to be yourself.” This sentence became the motto for his professional life.
FC St. Pauli reacted promptly and supportively – both officially and on Instagram. “Our U19 coach Christian Dobrick made his homosexuality public in an interview. As FC St. Pauli, we of course support him and his coming out. Because it’s actually quite simple and should apply to everyone: love who you want!”, wrote the club on social media – with the hashtag #liebdochwenduwillst. The club shared a picture with the words “Only love counts”. President Oke Göttlich has already personally pledged his support to Dobrick.
