Four years after coming out
Gay footballer counts former club
January 13, 2026 – 2:35 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Josh Cavallo settles accounts with his former club. The professional claims that after his coming out he was no longer included for “political reasons”.
Gay footballer Josh Cavallo has made serious allegations against his former club Adelaide United, accusing him of homophobia. The 26-year-old Australian claimed in an Instagram post that after coming out four years ago he was no longer selected for “political reasons” and that his performance in training was “constantly ignored”. “It was difficult to accept that my own club was homophobic,” Cavallo wrote.
Adelaide United “categorically rejected” the allegations in a statement. The Australian first division team emphasized that all line-up decisions were “made exclusively on a sporting level”.
The former Australian junior international publicly acknowledged his homosexuality during his time with Adelaide. In his last season with the club he did not appear in a single league game.
Cavallo also criticized the behavior of his former teammates. “When I saw teammates making fun of a photo of me and my partner in a group chat, it only made the pain worse,” wrote the left-back.
The situations made him doubt his coming out. He asked himself “whether I wouldn’t have kept my sexuality a secret better,” said Cavallo.
After more than four years with Adelaide, the footballer moved to English sixth division club Peterborough Sports in the summer. He has made four appearances at his new club so far and emphasized that the “new beginning in Great Britain would allow him to breathe again.”