Philipp Lahm, the captain of the German football team, has told homosexual players to keep their sexuality secret to avoid being verbally abused.
The Bayern Munich player, who is 27 and married last year, said it would be "very difficult" for a footballer to be "openly gay". But he insisted he would be comfortable to learn that any of his team-mates were gay.
The player's comments will fuel the debate about homophobia in the game and could lead to him being sanctioned by the German football federation, the DFB. In common with many national associations around the world, the DFB is keen to be seen to fight prejudice in the game. Its president, Theo Zwanziger, recently called for homosexual players to come out and promised them the association's help.
In March, he said: "I would find it brave and would welcome it if a football player would come out."
Last November, Mario Gomez, a striker and Lahm's team-mate, urged gay footballers to be open about their sexuality.
Gomez, the German league's top-scorer last season, said: "Being gay should no longer be a taboo topic."
Lahm, who has 77 international caps and is considered one of the game's best full backs, has established a foundation for disadvantaged children. He has acted as a figurehead for the battle against child abuse and been an ambassador for FIFA's SOS Children's Villages campaign and World Aids Day.
In 2007, he became the first German international to speak out against homophobia and, the following year, he was given an award for his contribution against intolerance by the Weimar Gay Triangle, a campaign group.
However, it appears that homophobia still haunts the game in Germany. Last July, in the build-up to Germany's successful World Cup, the agent of the former captain, Michael Ballack, said the team contained a "bunch of gays".
A few months earlier, Rudi Assauer, the former Schalke manager, was criticized for saying that there was "no place" for homosexual players in football.
Lahm told the celebrity magazine Bunte: "An openly gay footballer would be exposed to abusive elements. For someone who does [come out], it would be very difficult."
In England, the Football Association has a homophobia-in-football working group but not a single player has openly said he is homosexual in the top four leagues.
The last English footballer to come out was Justin Fashanu in 1990. He was subsequently offered no full-time contracts and later committed suicide.
In 2008, Paul Elliott, a retired Chelsea defender, estimated that there were more than a dozen homosexual Premier League players but they kept quiet for fear of a negative reaction from fans.
The England cricketer Steven Davies became that sport's first openly homosexual player when he came out in The Daily Telegraph in February, while Gareth Thomas, the former Welsh rugby union international, announced he was homosexual in 2009.
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