Jake Daniels has become an overnight icon for bravely coming out – the Blackpool starlet is a credit to football
Sponsored by
MANY a football follower has been overcome by back-page boredom from the same old story of Gareth Bale’s constant squabble with the people who run Real Madrid.
In Wales and among some Spurs supporters, his name evokes floods of admiration for his burning pace and sublime goals.
To others, his conviction of mistreatment at the Bernabeu has become a bore on two legs.
Bale is as good a player as Britain has produced this century but something or someone went haywire — mostly I suspect Zinedine Zidane — who, right or wrong, made no secret of his disdain for the player’s attitude.
Clashing personalities happen between even the best managers and players.
Zidane was wrong to have let his disappointments affect his judgment but he and the fans must have been irritated by the story that Bale never bothered to learn more than a smattering of Spanish in his nine years with Real.
Read More on Jake Daniels
Bale says he knows enough to get by. But Real fans were only too happy to believe that the long-hitting golfer thought more of his clubs than his club.
Four times a Champions League winner with Real, Bale might shortly make it five without kicking a ball.
He and his agent made his unhappiness public and it seems the player fell out of love with football — except when it is played by Wales.
In the principality, he’s revered as a sort of mixture of a young Tom Jones, Nathan Cleverly and Michael Sheen.
Most read in Football
Now up pops real life as a contrast.
No one outside a small coterie in Blackpool knew much about Jake Daniels, who speaks English very well, thank you.
He used it to great effect this week when the 17-year-old stated publicly that he was homosexual. No agent necessary.
Not since Justin Fashanu in 1990 has a pro footballer come out while still playing — and I dare say others have probably been put off by the possible reaction among fellow players or crowds.
Attitudes have changed since then, thank goodness. Daniels will not, I hope, be taunted for his personal life but — having been bold enough to make a statement — I am sure his mettle will not fail him should there be hard times.
Some oafs might well chance a few shouts or even a terrace chant but, equally, I think they will be quickly silenced by fans who value decency and fair play.
Jake became an overnight icon in a sport that suffers more than it should with the spoiled-star persona of a few players. So here’s a further example for consideration.
Mark Noble, twice Jake’s age, is a strong leader and an all-action player who is not afraid to speak his mind.
He’s about to retire at West Ham — and does so with crowd affection still ringing in his ears.
Mark has made a record 549 first-team appearances since — in the wisdom of youth — joining us in 2000, always his favourite club.
He can and has been a fearless critic and his character always shone through, never more so than in his rejection of the possibility of winning an Ireland cap, for whom he distantly qualified.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Some proper Irish lad, he said, had more rights and a greater need.
I’m sure that Noble and Bale will support Jake Daniels in his decision to lead a campaign in a way that might not be as vital as Greta Thunberg’s on climate change — but is still helping change the climate in a serious way.