Cavallo entered the match in the second half and when the game ended it was then that Melbourne Victory fans began to harass Cavallo by yelling homophobic remarks at him. Distraught by what he had to endure; the Australian soccer player took to Instagram to vent, only to find out that he had also received abuse on the social platform as well.

On Instagram, Cavallo shared his thoughts about what had just occurred and received the support of his club, Adelaide United. Here are Josh Cavallo thoughts on the homophobic abuse he suffered in Adelaide United match against Melbourne Victory.

Josh Cavallo takes to Instagram to vent over receiving abuse by Melbourne Victory fans

On Instagram Josh Cavallo stated, “I’m not going to pretend that I didn’t see or hear the homophobic abuse at the game last night. There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was. This shouldn’t be acceptable, and we need to do more to hold people accountable. I will never apologize for living my truth and most recently who I am outside of football. To Instagram I don’t want any child or adult to have to receive the hateful and hurtful messages that I’ve received. I knew truly being who I am that I was going to come across this. It’s a sad reality that your platforms are not doing enough to stop these messages… Thank you to all the positive messages, love and support, seeing that far outweighs the negativity. To the individuals that reached out after making a stand at the game. I commend you. Thank you to those fans, you had me emotional. Love will always win.”

Adelaide United seconded the sentiments of their player by issuing a statement, “Adelaide United is proud to be an inclusive and diverse football club, and to see one of our players subjected to homophobic abuse is disappointing and upsetting. We will continue to work with the Australian Professional Leagues and Melbourne Victory to identify perpetrators and prosecute them accordingly.”

Josh Cavallo uploaded a video on Twitter announcing that he is gay and at the moment, Cavallo is the only current openly gay top-flight male soccer player. Cavallo is not the first soccer player to come out as former Leeds United and Columbus Crew player Robbie Rogers announced he was gay in February 2013. Rogers would return to the pitch in 2014 and play until 2017 with the Los Angeles Galaxy, playing a total of 78 games.

For Cavallo, as he mentioned in his video, an enormous weight has been lifted off his shoulders and he can now concentrate on just playing the sport he loves with his teammates and have his friends and loved ones in the stands cheering him on knowing there are no more secrets. Here is more on Josh Cavallo’s announcement.

Josh Cavalloopenly gay soccer player

In the video Josh Cavallo stated: “I know there are other players living in silence… I want to help change this, to show that everyone is welcome in the game of football and deserves the right to be their authentic self…If anything, you earn more respect from people. Coming out to my loved ones, my peers, my friends, my teammates, my coaches has been incredible…The response and support I have received is immense – it’s starting to make me think, `Why have I been hiding this burden for so long?’”

In a statement also posted on his Twitter page Cavallo stated: “Being a gay closeted footballer, I’ve had to learn to mask my feelings in order to fit the mold of a professional footballer”.

Cavallo follows former A-League player Andy Brennan, who publicly came out while playing in 2019. Former Germany international Thomas Hitzlsperger came out after retiring from soccer in 2014.

Josh Cavallo is a left-back and has represented the under-20 Australian national team, he currently plays for Adelaide United, where he has played 19 games since 2021, but before that played 9 games for Western United in 2019/2020.

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