Frank Lampard has expressed a desire to see an openly gay footballer come out in the near future and be “treated with respect”, the Daily Mirror reports.
The 36-year-old was asked his opinion on gay footballers on popular TV chat show Alan Carr’s Chatty Man, who intimated that statistically there must be several homosexual Premier League players.
“We have had a couple come out afterwards. I think it is a fact they will be out there, they are in all lives and times, but we are at fault as a sport. It is that old syndrome where it is a man’s game and you can’t talk about that,” he said.
“I have to say the game is changing a lot, there are a lot of campaigns and I feel it in the dressing rooms. I would love it if someone came out and everyone treated it with respect.
“This silly thing that we are macho and we play football is very old hat.”
Lampard also spoke of how much he is loving life up north, though he will always consider himself a ‘Chelsea boy’ after spending such a long and successful time at Stamford Bridge.
Appearing on the show to promote his new range of Frankie’s Magic Football children’s books, the former England international said that both fans and staff had embraced his arrival at Manchester City.
“They decided I was moving on and at 35 you are not going to fight that. If they want you to move on you move on. Then Manchester City came in for me. it was too good to turn down.
“At 36 not many people get asked to play for the champions of England at the time for five months.
“I have got such a great relationship with the Chelsea fans. It hasn’t broken it.
“I still have my main house in Chelsea and I go back to London a lot, I hope I won’t ever lose that, I don’t think I will.”
And he finally opened up about what Jose Mourinho is like as a manager, describing in detail just how much method is in the Special One’s madness.
“I say that because he helped me in my career a huge amount. When he came I didn’t have that self confidence, I was 25, and he brought that out of me. And he does that with all the players he works with.
“He is very good at gauging a player and he knows if you need a b******ing he will give it to you individually or as a team on a day but if you need a little bit of love and niceness he does that as well.”