Giroud : "Impossible For Gays To Express Their Selves In Football"

He posed for gay magazine Tetu during his days in France and have been critical of the way gays are not allowed to express them selves for fear of being rejected.

The Former Arsenal man says it is impossible for players to publicly say they are gay in football and says the sport has a lot of work to do to on the subject of being gay in a dressing room.

Olivier Giroud has told French Magazine, Le Figaro, that football still has a lot of work to do in fostering a culture of acceptibility regarding gay football players and says he understand the "pain and difficulty of guys coming out".

The Chelsea striker posed for gay magazine Têtu when he played in France and says via The Guardian "I am ultra-tolerant on it – when I was in Montpellier I was engaged in this fight by posing for [the magazine] Têtu."

He continued: "I would be delighted if my ­gesture can help change the mentality of some people ­involved in football.

"I don't see any difference between a gay person and a straight one. Tetu is a ­magazine just like any other."

Giroud spoke about the only openly gay player to have played in the Premier League to date in Thomas Hitzlsperger: "It was very emotional.

"This is when I told myself that it was impossible to display his homosexuality in football. In a changing room, there is a lot of testosterone, rooming together, collective showers … It’s tricky but it’s like that."

"At Arsenal when they asked me to wear the ‘Rainbow Laces’ in support of the gay community, I did it.

"There is still a lot of work in the football world on this subject, to say the least," he continued.

Giroud is part of the French squad that will take on Netherlands in Group 1 of UEFA's Nations League in Rotterdam on Friday before a friendly against Uruguay at Stade de France next Tuesday to close an immensely successful 2018 in style.