US soccer player comes out as a gay to help other gay athletes

a soccer playing in a green kit kicking a ball, he is wearing white gloves and has a determined look on his face

A 25-year-old retired soccer player has introduced the world to his boyfriend and come out as gay in an adorable Instagram.

Matt Pacifici played for the Columbus Crew until an injury forced him into retirement two years ago.

Pacifici told OutSports he decided to come out so that it might help other gay soccer players.

‘When you’re in a relationship that makes you happy, and on social media you see people posting about their girlfriends, it feels weird not being a part of that,’ he said.

‘You want them to know. This relationship is the one that makes me the most happy ever in my life.’

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Matthew Pacifici (@matthewpacifici) on Jan 20, 2019 at 12:17pm PST

Pacifici post the cute photo of himself and his boyfriend Dirk Blanchat with the caption, ‘What do you mean “I didn’t tell you?”.’ Blanchat also came out in the Instagram post.

The retired soccer player said he stayed in the closet during his sporting life because he worried coming out would hurt his career.

‘Playing the part of the straight professional athlete was much more important to me at the time than being true to myself,’ Pacifici said.

Pacifici’s playing days were cut short after a teammate accidentally kicked him in the forehead during practice. That caused postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a condition that causes dizziness after a jump in heart rate when a person gets up from lying down.

OutSports reported Pacifici’s coming out makes him the fifth major league soccer player to do so. He just hopes it makes a difference.

‘The more people who come out, the easier it will be for other people to follow,’ he said.

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