When Thomas Hitzlsperger came out as gay in 2012, he immediately became a prominent voice in the conversation surrounding homosexuality in football.

More than a decade has now passed, but the former Germany international believes a significant divide between the men’s and the women’s game remains when it comes to acceptance.

Openly gay and lesbian players are commonplace in women’s football, but still few male players have felt comfortable speaking publicly about their sexuality.

Hitzlsperger on creating a more inclusive environment

While the former Aston Villa and Stuttgart man does not expect the issue to stop being a talking point in football anytime soon, he hopes greater understanding and more open discussion will help create a more inclusive environment for the future.

“That’s why we have to look at the bigger picture,” he tells FourFourTwo. “Within the women’s game, there are so many openly lesbian footballers that it doesn’t even seem to be an issue any more. The women’s game is fortunate in that respect, but there are other concerns they’re dealing with. They still want to grow their game and need more investment.

“The men’s game is very different and it’s still not normal to be gay. It’s something that’s always controversial and continues to be debated. I don’t think we’ll ever reach a point in football when homosexuality won’t be discussed, because some people have issues. For some reason or other, they just don’t like the idea of people being gay. There are certain people who will never change their opinion, they’ll always be against it and that’s a fact.”

Hitzlsperger’s hope is that while everyone does not share these same beliefs, there are plenty of people ready to be engaged in the debate.

“I think there are enough people who are open to discussion,” he continues. “Even if they don’t like the idea at first, they at least listen. They’re the ones I’d like to address and say “Look, I haven’t chosen to be like this, and I’ve always been this way.” It’s not always easy, but I don’t want to be criticised for something that I haven’t chosen to be, yet I accept it, I enjoy my life and I want other people to accept it.

“By no means do I believe it will no longer be a discussion point, though. It always will be because people have their own beliefs and won’t change them. It’s not just footballers, it’s society, otherwise more former footballers would say “It was tough during my playing days but now I can share my experiences.”

“Not many have done that, so clearly we have an issue within society around masculinity, and the reality is some men are afraid.”

Hitzlsperger also believes that one way to address these attitudes is to begin teaching children about respect and discrimination from an early age.

“I’d be all for kids learning from a young age how we should respect each other and not discriminate,” he adds. “For me, the earlier the better, but it’s a very complicated discussion, because some would say “Why would you discuss sexuality with kids at school?”

“Overall though, we can’t start early enough in telling people that any form of discrimination is wrong. From there, we could explain the types of discrimination and how we can be more inclusive within society in general.”