Justin Fashanu, an English footballer of Nigerian heritage, made history as the first professional footballer to command a £1 million transfer fee in 1981. Fashanu was also known for being the first openly gay professional footballer. He played for several clubs between 1978 and 1997 and was known to be gay by his early clubs, but this was not made public.
After revealing his s*xuality, Fashanu’s career faced criticism, and he struggled to achieve success following his transfer from Norwich City to Nottingham Forest. Fashanu’s life took a tragic turn when he was accused of s*xual assault by a 17-year-old boy in the U.S., where he had travelled to and met the boy. Fearing he would not receive a fair trial because of his homos*xuality, Fashanu fled to England, where he took his own life in May 1998. His su*cide note stated that the s*x was consensual.
After completing his apprenticeship with Norwich City, Fashanu turned professional in December 1978. He scored regularly for the team and won the BBC Goal of the Season award in 1980 for a spectacular goal against Liverpool. He also played for England at under-21 level six times, but he never made it to the senior side.
However, his confidence and form suffered when his homos*xuality became known to Nottingham Forest‘s coach, Brian Clough. Fashanu was barred from training with the side and only managed to score three goals in 32 league games in 1981-82.
He was loaned to Southampton in August 1982, where he scored three goals in nine appearances and helped the team after Kevin Keegan’s sudden departure. His move would have been permanent, but Southampton lacked the necessary funds.
Fashanu also played for several other teams throughout his career, including Notts County, Brighton & Hove Albion, Los Angeles Heat, Edmonton Brickmen, Hamilton Steelers, Manchester City, West Ham United, Leyton Orient, and Toronto Blizzard.
After publicly coming out as a gay footballer in the Sun Newspaper in October 1990, Fashanu reported that his fellow players accepted him relatively well, but he still endured malicious jokes and was frequently subjected to crowd abuse because of his s*xual orientation.
In February 1992, Fashanu served as assistant manager for Torquay under Ivan Golac.
However, in March 1998, a man alleged to the police that he had been s*xually assaulted by Fashanu after a night of drinking. At the time, homos*xual acts were illegal in Maryland, where the assault allegedly took place. The youth stated that the act was non-consensual, happening while he was asleep. Fashanu was questioned by police on April 3 but was not taken into custody. Later, the police arrived at his flat with an arrest warrant for charges of second-degree s*xual assault, first-degree assault, and second-degree assault. Fashanu had already fled to England.
On May 3, he was discovered hanged in a deserted lock-up garage he had broken into in Fairchild Place, Shoreditch, London. Earlier, he had visited a local gay sauna called Chariots Roman Spa.
Fashanu’s remains were cremated, and a small ceremony was held at City of London Cemetery and Crematorium. In The Pink Paper’s Top 500 Lesbian and Gay Heroes, Fashanu was listed as number 99.
In 2017, Netflix released the film Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story.