Justin Fashanu

Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu (19 February 1961 – 2 May 1998) was an English footballer who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997.

He was known by his early clubs to be gay, and came out publicly later in his career, becoming the first professional footballer to be openly gay.

Fashanu attended Attleborough High School in the 1970s where his talent for football developed, and was scouted by Norwich City scout John Sainty in a school match against Thetford Grammar School in 1974.

Fashanu began his career as an apprentice with Norwich City, turning professional in December 1978.

He made his league debut on 13 January 1979, against West Bromwich Albion, and settled into the Norwich side, scoring regularly and occasionally spectacularly.

In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for a spectacular goal against Liverpool.

He managed a total of 103 senior appearances for Norwich, scoring 40 goals.

While at the club he was also capped six times for England at under-21 level, although an anticipated call-up to the senior side never materialised.

He scored 19 league goals in the 1980–81 season, but it was not enough to prevent the Canaries from being relegated.

He was also one of the first footballers to command a £1 million transfer fee, with his transfer from Norwich City to Nottingham Forest in 1981, and had varying levels of success as a player afterwards, until he retired in 1997.

Fashanu's name had been linked with bigger clubs for some time, and his inevitable departure from Carrow Road came in August 1981 when he signed for Nottingham Forest, becoming Britain's first £1 million black footballer.

His career stalled as his professional relationship with manager Brian Clough deteriorated; Clough, it would appear, was disturbed by the rumours of Fashanu's visits to gay nightclubs and bars.

His goals and then confidence dried up as he failed to fit in with the playing and lifestyle demands of Clough, especially after Clough had discovered his homosexuality and barred him from training with the side.

He scored just three goals in 32 league games for Forest in 1981–82.

In his autobiography, Clough recounts a verbal dressing-down he gave Fashanu after hearing rumours that he was going to gay bars.

Where do you go if you want a loaf of bread?' I asked him.

'A baker's, I suppose.' 'Where do you go if you want a leg of lamb?' 'A butcher's.' 'So why do you keep going to that bloody poofs' club?

In August 1982, he was loaned to Southampton, scoring three goals in nine appearances.

At The Dell, Fashanu settled in well and his promising form helped the "Saints" overcome the sudden departure of Kevin Keegan; manager Lawrie McMenemy would have liked to make the move permanent, but was prevented from doing so by a lack of funds.

In December 1982, he was sold to Forest's local rivals Notts County for £150,000.

He scored 20 times in 64 games for the Magpies, although he was unable to prevent them suffering back-to-back relegations, before moving to Brighton & Hove Albion in June 1985 for a fee of £115,000, where a knee injury soon afterwards looked to have finished his career.

He went to the United States for surgery and began playing again, firstly with Los Angeles Heat and then to Canada with the Edmonton Brick Men and with the Hamilton Steelers.

He returned to England in 1989 and tried to resurrect his top level playing career, joining Manchester City on 23 October 1989, and played twice in the First Division, but on 20 November, barely a month after joining the club, he moved to West Ham United, later having a trial with Ipswich Town.

He joined Leyton Orient in March 1990 and subsequently joined non-league Southall as player-coach, before spending the summer of 1991 back in North America with Toronto Blizzard.

After leaving Toronto, he returned to England again to sign for semi-pro team Leatherhead.

In October 1990, he publicly came out as gay in an interview with the tabloid press, becoming the only prominent player in professional English football to do so until Jake Daniels in 2022.

Although Fashanu claimed that he was generally well accepted by his fellow players, he freely admitted that they would often joke maliciously about his sexual orientation, and he also became the target of constant crowd abuse because of it.

He began a trial with Newcastle United on 24 October 1991, making one first-team appearance as a sub against Peterborough United.

Manager Ossie Ardiles decided not to give him a permanent contract.

He signed for Torquay United in the Third Division on 23 November 1991.

He was the centre of fan and media attention while at Plainmoor: in particular, his relationship with Coronation Street actress Julie Goodyear featured in tabloid newspapers; but he still managed to impress on the pitch, playing 21 league games that season and scoring 10 goals, though he was unable to save Torquay from suffering relegation from the Third Division.

After moving to the United States, in 1998 he was questioned by police when a seventeen-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault.

He was charged, and a warrant for his arrest was issued in Howard County, Maryland, on 3 April 1998, but he had already left his flat.

According to his suicide note, fearing he would not get a fair trial because of his homosexuality, he fled to England, where he killed himself in London in May 1998.

His suicide note stated that the sex was consensual.

In 2020, Fashanu was inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame.

Fashanu was the son of a Nigerian barrister living in the UK and a Guyanese nurse named Pearl.

When his parents split up, he and his younger brother John were sent to a Barnardo's care home.

When he was six, he and John were fostered by Alf and Betty Jackson and were brought up in Shropham, Norfolk.

Fashanu excelled at boxing as a youth, and was rumoured at one time to be pursuing a professional boxing career instead of his footballing career.