Robbie Rogers is a former midfielder for the Columbus Crew
in Major League Soccer and Leeds United in England. He represented the United
States at the U18 and U20 levels, and made several appearances for the United
States Men’s National Team in World Cup qualifying, CONCACAF Gold Cups, and in
the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He recently signed a 4-year contract with
the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Why is this significant? Because in his personal blog this past February, at the age of 25, Rogers publicly came out as a gay man and said
he was retiring from professional soccer.
This story is not a new one—obviously American journalists
have been covering Roger’s story since…well…February. And at the time, like
many other Americans engrossed in soccer culture, I was greatly disappointed
that he was calling it quits. He may not be the best American soccer player
ever to play the beautiful game professionally, but all of us agreed that at
his age with the level of talent he did have for him to retire because he was
gay was simply a crime to international football.
