Ekow Eshun on the first openly gay footballer, Justin Fashanu

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1981 Brian Clough paid £1 million pounds to bring Justin Fashanu to Nottingham Forest. It was the climax of a meteoric career, but within months the goals had dried up, he'd been going to gay nightclubs, and Fashanu had also become become a born again Christian. Four decades later Justin Fashanu remains top flight English football's only openly gay player. From his beginnings in care with brother John as Barnardo's boys, via adoption, boxing, football and failed pop star, this is an extraordinary life, beautifully highlighted by his nominator, Ekow Eshun.

"He was a pioneer - he broke ground. He was a prominent black footballer at a time when to be black and a footballer was fraught territory, when players were barracked from the terraces for no other reason than the colour of their skin." Ekow Eshun

Also in studio is Richard Williams of the Guardian, who saw Fashanu play on the way and on the way down. Plus there is moving archive of Fashanu himself, and also from his niece, Amal Fashanu, talking at the time of the release of her documentary, Britain's Gay Footballers.

The producer for BBC Studios Audio is Miles Warde

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
0:05.0	My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.
0:08.0	It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements,
0:14.7	stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
0:19.1	And the BBC's position at the heart of British music means we can tell those stories like no one else.
0:24.6	We were, are and always will be right there at the center of the narrative.
0:28.6	So whether you want an insightful take on music right now or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and
0:34.4	infamous moments in music check out the music podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:38.6	BBC Sounds music radio podcasts.
0:44.0	My guest today has chosen somebody remarkable,
0:47.0	and I'm going to let him tell you who it is.
0:50.0	Echon fire away.
0:52.0	I've picked Justin Fashine.
0:54.3	Justin Fashine was a footballer, he was a black footballer,
0:57.9	he was the first million pound black footballer,
1:00.4	and he remains to this day the first and only openly gay footballer in English football in his later years a troubled figure but someone I find deeply compelling because he's a pioneer because he broke ground the time
1:16.3	when to be black and a footballer was a fraught territory when black footballers
1:22.2	were still barracked for no other reason and the color of their skin
1:25.9	nothing to do with their quality as players. He was a very talented player. He became the first
1:30.9	openly gay out footballer with humour, with charm, with grace, with real self-confidence,
1:36.0	and it cost him a lot.
1:37.0	Take a listen to this. It's from 1992, and he's talking about whether taunts from the terraces about which you've just been speaking ever had an impact.
	...

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