378: Thomas Hitzlsperger, West Ham United, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, Barclays Premier League 2010/11 Collector Binder

In many ways the late Brian Clough was a man ahead of his time. A manager who built his teams around the concept of playing entertaining attacking football while his rivals looked to grind out results. An outspoken, media savvy wordsmith in an era of stiff upper lipped grey blurs. A committed socialist who even took to the picket lines with striking miners when the majority of his peers stuck to the age old view that football and politics don’t mix. 

Above all else ‘old Big ‘ead’ was renowned for his astute man management which allowed him to get the very best out of his players and fly in the face of criticism, underestimation and, in some cases, deeply entrenched prejudice.. When Viv Anderson was subjected to racist abuse during an away game at Carlisle United Clough was quick to put an arm round the fledgling right-back telling him “I think you can play. Don’t let them influence you in any way.” This being Brian Clough though he also told Anderson to go back and warm up despite the Neanderthal barrage of fruit and come back with “two pears and a banana” for the gaffer.

Sadly Cloughie was not so supportive of one of his later charges. Clough shelled out £1m to bring Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest, making him Britain’s first million pound black footballer, but was not too supportive when it transpired that the young striker was gay. Clough refused to allow Fashanu to train with the first team and loaned him to Southampton at the earliest opportunity before selling him to local rivals Notts County at the end of the 1981/82 season. When he came out in 1990 his brother, fellow footballer and Gladiators’ hype man John, publicly disowned him and, having played out an extremely nomadic career, Fashanu tragically committed suicide in 1998.

Two years later German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger moved from the prestigious Bayern Munich youth set up to Aston Villa. He broke into the first team in the 2002/03 season under the management of Graham Taylor and was one of very few bright sparks in a talented squad that struggled to sixteenth place. Although less of a regular under incoming manager David O’Leary, Hitzlsperger still contributed five goals across 38 appearances in all competitions as the Villans finished sixth in the Premier League. The German’s penchant for spectacular long-range strikes earned him the suitably unsubtle nickname ‘Der Hammer’. Despite being a long-term team-mate of Dion Dublin he sadly failed to make use of this nickname and invest in properties in the nearby area and after another season in the Midlands he moved back to his native land with VfB Stuttgart.

A mid-table finish in the 2005/06 season was followed up by a spectacular 2006/07 campaign which saw Stuttgart crowned as Bundesliga champions. Hitzlsperger was an integral part of the victorious VfB side contributing ten goals in all competitions throughout the season as well as a further 15 in the subsequent three campaigns as Stuttgart became mainstays in European club competition. In this period he also picked up 52 international caps, contributing six goals and helping Die Mannschaft to the final of Euro 2008. In 2010, following a brief spell with Lazio in Italy, he returned to England with West Ham United but didn’t make an appearance until February 2011 due to persistent injury problems. Despite marking his debut with a trademark 25-yard strike he only registered a further twelve appearances as The Hammers were relegated from the Premier League and ‘Der Hammer’ was released on a free to Wolfsburg. Again injury limited him to only six appearances and, after a seven game spell with Everton in 2013 he retired from professional football at the tender age of 31.

At the start of 2014 Thomas Hitzlsperger came out as gay. Staggeringly he was the most high profile footballer to do so since Justin Fashanu nearly a quarter of a century earlier. Hitzlsperger stated that he thought it was important to reveal his sexuality in order to “move the discussion about homosexuality among professional sportspeople forward” but whether, over six years on, this has happened is open for debate. Although Hitzlsperger’s announcement, and subsequent activism, have certainly been better received than Justin Fashanu’s it’s astonishing that there have been so few high profile players opening up about their sexuality. Then again, as scenes in the USA showed us back in October, the beautiful game has some way to go. 

Openly gay San Diego Loyal midfielder Collin Martin was subjected to homophobic abuse by Phoenix Rising’s Junior Flemmings which led Loyal manager Landon Donovan to remove his team from the pitch. Donovan spoke passionately and articulately after the match about the need to eradicate homophobia from the sport “so people don’t have to feel that they have to live behind a curtain their whole life”. Sadly, several pundits and former players still espouse the belief that gay players should keep their sexuality secret and toxic masculinity still dominates several facets of the game. Former Manchester United keeper Anders Lindegaard has suggested that gay footballers are in need of a hero to champion their cause. Maybe that hero should have been Justin Fashanu but perhaps that hero could still be Thomas Hitzlsperger.