History-making gay soccer player says his pro career is over due to injury
Having left Cagliari at the end of his contract, Jakub Jankto has explained why he’s back in the Czech Republic for a new start. The post History-making gay soccer player says his pro career is over due to injury appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
Jakub Jankto appears to have called time on his professional soccer career at the age of 29.
The winger, who came out as gay in February 2023 while still an active international, put out a statement via his personal Instagram account Thursday.
Jankto has been a free agent since leaving Italian Serie A club Cagliari at the end of June, upon the expiration of his two-year contract.
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Jakub Jankto’s exit from Cagliari was expected. Like Jake Daniels and Josh Cavallo, the Czech winger is a gay man looking for a new pro club.
Having failed to make a first-team appearance in any competition in the 2024-25 season, there was uncertainty over his future in the pro game.
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Addressing messages he says have been sent to him asking if he will continue in his career, he wrote: “Unfortunately, I don’t.”
He added: “The reason is simple. I suffered a very serious injury — I completely damaged ligaments in my ankle.
“I was trying to overcome it, to get through the whole year.”
As a result, Jankto has already been marked on the website Transfermarkt as “Retired.”
The site, which tracks pro soccer players around the world and provides detailed stats and records, shows Jankto as having been out last season with an ankle sprain for seven games, from late September 2024 and continuing through October.
He was back on the Cagliari bench in November but remained an unused substitute for the rest of the Serie A season. Transfermarkt notes three of those absences for flu, and the other in May for “ankle problems.”
It had previously been reported that then Cagliari coach Davide Nicola may have made the decision not to use Jankto due to a tax payment that would have been triggered had he made another competitive appearance.
In any case, in his Instagram post, Jankto says there is another “key point” as to why he has returned to his hometown of Prague — his young son, David.
Mentioning that he hasn’t been able to see David as often as he would like, he added: “I wanted to change this situation, because we have just one family, and I wanted to be closer to my son in Prague. That’s why I decided to move.”
Jankto concluded his message by thanking “all the people who supported me… I appreciate it.”
The former international, who won 45 caps for his country between 2017 and 2022, has also added a new role to his bio — assistant coach to the Under-7s team of FK Dukla Prague.
Jankto was one of three out gay male soccer players to be released from their professional contracts at the end of last season.
England’s Jake Daniels has been in the U.S. in recent weeks for trials as he looks for a new club, as initially reported by the Blackpool Gazette.
Josh Cavallo is now in the U.K. with Peterborough Sports, a semi-professional team in the sixth tier of the English game. It’s understood that the 25-year-old Australian signed a one-year deal to play in the National League North division.
In terms of out gay male soccer players still active at a professional level, there are two examples in second-tier leagues — American midfielder Collin Martin of USL Championship team North Carolina FC, and Australian winger Andy Brennan of South Melbourne in the NPL Victoria division.
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The post History-making gay soccer player says his pro career is over due to injury appeared first on Outsports.
