Media Coverage of Thomas Hitzlsperger’s Coming-out in German Newspapers

Abstract

In 2014, four months after he retired, Thomas Hitzlsperger became the first professional football player in Germany to announce that he is gay. Although homosexuality has become much more accepted in many areas of society, this does not include the world of professional sports. By contrast, homosexuality is hidden and excluded from both official and unofficial discourses. Thus, there was an overwhelming media response when Hitzlsperger announced his sexual orientation. This study analyzes the way that Germany's two most read quality newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) as well as ZEIT published the initial interview of his coming-out and commented on the outing. Using a qualitative content analysis, three main issues emerged from the data: the acceptance of a gay professional football player, homosexuality in football, and homosexuality in society. Newspapers reported in a consistently positive way about Hitzlsperger, but also discussed critically whether homophobia is mainly a problem of men's football or still a widely held attitude in society. Despite more tolerance of gay people in general, football remains associated with hyper-masculinity since homophobic attitudes are resistant.