Twitter's Anonymous Gay Footballer Bails, Deletes Account

(photo by Tevarak Phanduang on Unsplash)

An anonymous Twitter account, which claimed to be run by a champion athlete planning to come out soon, has bailed and deleted his account.

For weeks, the Twitter user told the world they were a gay English Football League player who had just come out their family. Subsequent tweets shared the progress of meetings with the player's coaches and management.

“I’m a professional footballer, playing for a club in the @SkyBetChamp. I will be revealing my identity soon, but I am a proud gay man, hoping to break the mould. I am under the age of 23, and today I came out to my family. Soon, I will come out publicly. … Today I came out to my family. I have hid my sexuality for far too long. My family responded amazingly well, and other than a few close friends, they were the first to know.”

On July 15, the Twitter user wrote that he had come out to his football club and was planning on coming out to the world “prior to the start of the new season.”

“I am thinking of those involved in professional football who are similarly positioned,” the poster added. “My hope is that they can take comfort and hope from such disclosure and can feel suitably empowered to, if desirable, reach the same decision."

The user had previously announced they would be publicly coming out tomorrow, July 24.

There's no proof the person running the account was an actual athlete.

Earlier today, all the tweets on the account had disappeared and in their place were two tweets.

The first read, "I thought I was was stronger. I was wrong."

The second added, "I'm not strong enough to do this."

The tweets ended with, "This isn't a hoax. I wouldn't do that."

And shortly thereafter, the account was deleted.