LGBTQ history month - remembering Justin Fashanu
Legacy
Justin Fashanu was a Pioneer and Football Legend. In 1990 he became the first professional footballer to come out as gay (to date he’s the only professional male footballer to do so in the UK). His transfer fee to Nottingham Forest was one million pounds which made him the first Black football player to attract a million pounds fee and the first player under 21 – he was only 20.
Fashanu was inducted into the Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2020.
Career
He was born in London in 1961. At age 3 and 4 Fashanu and his younger brother were taken into care - initially to a Barnardo’s children’s home before being placed with a couple in Norfolk.
Justin started his football career with Norwich before his epic signing with Nottingham Forest in 1981. Although he hadn’t yet come out publicly the manager got wind of Fashanu’s sexuality and disapproved which greatly affected Fashanu’s confidence and his performance on the pitch. In 1982 he was sold to Notts County and over the next 8 years he played for football clubs in the UK, the USA and Canada.
After coming out as gay in 1990 Fashanu experienced homophobic abuse and top-flight clubs wouldn’t sign him. He did, however, go on to manage or play for teams before eventually retiring in 1997.
Justin Fashanu was a complex individual; his adult life was marked with highs and lows. He committed suicide in 1998 after believing he wouldn’t receive a fair trial as he’d been accused of sexual assault in the US.
In 2019 Amal Fashanu, his niece, created The Justin Fashanu Foundation in his honour @thejustinfashanufoundation.