Robbie Rogers promises to be ‘extremely flamboyant’ at Russia World Cup
Robbie Rogers has pledged to be “extremely flamboyant” at the 2018 World Cup, which is set to be held in Russia.
The former Leeds United footballer came out as gay in 2013, while announcing his retirement from professional football – but he has since come out of retirement and now plays for LA Galaxy.
The US footballer has previously lashed out at FIFA for awarding the World Cup to countries with anti-gay laws and poor human rights records, such as Russia and Qatar.
However, speaking to the Mirror he said that rather than boycotting the event, he would instead try and be more visibly gay.
He said: “I think what I’ve learned from my experience of coming out, and being present in the locker room, is that by being there it is more of a statement than boycotting or something like that.
“So if I were to go to Russia or Qatar then I would do it, and I would be extremely flamboyant about it.”
He said of attitudes in US Major League Soccer: “It’s very much changing in the MLS – I have friends in every team and they tell me how things have changed, the sensitivity to using certain words and stuff like that.
“That being said, the next two World Cups are in places that are extremely homophobic and there aren’t really any out footballers around Europe or South America so it hasn’t really changed that much.”
