'What a goal!' Sir Ian McKellen brands footballer Jake Daniels a ‘hero’ after coming out

express.co.uk:

His bravery has seen him showered with praise by celebrities including ITV presenter Phillip Schofield, who came out himself back in 2020."There will be a time, I hope, when this isn't our second news story, and we won't need to do it because it won't matter and it won't make the headlines," the 60-year-old This Morning host declared on the show.He added: "Jake Daniels has hurled the world forward by being incredibly brave.

Hopefully that won't be needed in the future."Hats off to Jake, we think you're amazing."What’s important now, and this may be very naive, I think he will have an amazing amount of support, help and care within his own football community."That his football mates, his football club, are all enormously supportive."Phillip described the culture within football as that of a "tribal family" and expressed his hope that Jake was embraced by it, instead of bullied.The presenter went on: "What you want now is for that tribal family now to show an enormous amount of support."Of course, there’s always going to be sort of ribbing people and having a go, but this is the time to say, ‘Let’s not go for him on the pitch'."Meanwhile Simon Thomas also expressed affection and concern for Jake on the Jeremy Vine show this week, cautioning that his bravery had come at a very young age.He stated: "[Homosexuality] in football shouldn’t be significant in 2022, yet it is."I just think this is a hugely significant moment for football.