Cavallo, who publicly announced he was gay in October 2021, moved on from United in May last year.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768365730_454_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The club said in a statement at the time that Cavallo was doing so to explore an \u201copportunity overseas\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement that he posted to his Instagram account on Tuesday, Cavallo wrote that \u201cthe fans deserve honesty\u201d as the 26-year-old alleged he had opportunities \u201cblocked\u201d by \u201cpeople in power\u201d at the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s taken me a while to digest how my time at Adelaide United ended, but I think the fans deserve honesty,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaving the club had nothing to do with football. Decisions were made by people in power that blocked my opportunities, not because of my talent, but because of who I choose to love.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder the new management, it became clear that I wasn\u2019t allowed on the pitch because of politics. It\u2019s hard to swallow when I realised my own club was homophobic. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was angry because people thought I was sidelined based on injuries, when in reality, it was internal homophobia that kept me on the bench. I stayed professional, kept my head down, and worked hard every day which I\u2019m proud of. <\/p>\n
\u201cYet no matter how much I produced or improved, my contributions were continuously ignored. It brought a lot of negativity and affected my wellbeing as a professional footballer.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Cavallo came out as gay in 2021, his announcement was met with widespread praise from the football community \u2014 both in Australia and internationally. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absurd that coming out is a brave thing to do in football,\u201d tweeted former England and Barcelona striker Gary Lineker at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is though, and I\u2019m full of admiration for Josh for treading a path hopefully many others will follow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atletico Madrid\u2019s France World Cup winning striker Antoine Griezmann, meanwhile, said he was \u201cproud\u201d of the Australian. <\/p>\n
A post made on the official account belong to Adelaide footballer Josh Cavallo where he announced that he was gay.Source: Twitter<\/p>\n
Cavallo, however, wrote in his statement on Tuesday that what he alleged unfolded at Adelaide United was his \u201cfear\u201d when he decided to come out in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was exactly the fear I had about coming out, seeing prejudice affect my career in modern day,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time, I actually questioned if I should have kept my sexuality a secret. This brought up fears I had about coming out publicly, that being myself would affect my career. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt incredibly isolated and wondered if I\u2019d made the mistake of sharing my story. I felt things going backwards, not just on the pitch, but in the one place I thought was a safe space and after seeing a group chat of teammates mocking a picture of me and my partner only added to this heartache.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cavallo is now playing for English club Stamford and wrote that the \u201cfresh start\u201d in the UK has \u201chelped me breathe again\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the way it ended behind the scenes, I refuse to let it ruin my connection to this city. Adelaide is where I found my wings,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the fans and supporters: thank you for your passion and backing. You deserve honesty and success. You were incredible to play in front of. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, despite the claims, Adelaide captain Craig Goodwin delivered his own assessment of the situation while speaking on radio station FIVEAA.<\/p>\n
He explained that Cavallo\u2019s lack of game time was instead due to him taking up \u201coutside opportunities\u201d which led him to miss training sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, very shocked and disappointed,\u201d Goodwin said of his former teammate\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone that shared a change room with Josh and I\u2019ve obviously been through a lot with him. I wasn\u2019t there the last couple of years. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut for him to obviously say what he said and kind of blanket label the whole club and changeroom in the way that he did is extremely disappointing from our end.<\/p>\n
Craig Goodwin of Adelaide United has responded to Josh Cavallo\u2019s claims.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know why he would say these things, but all I can speak is from my side and my experiences. And nothing ever happened whilst I was there and whilst I was with Josh. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we were nothing but supportive of him in all these endeavours. And to say that he didn\u2019t play because of him being gay or who he loved, I believe to be untrue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I look at the facts from the time of me being there and beyond\u2026 Josh unfortunately had two major injuries. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then from that, there are a lot of other players within the squad that, in my opinion, worked a lot harder than he did. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there were, in fact, multiple occasions that Josh decided to take up outside opportunities, try to hide it from us and lie to us and miss training sessions and club commitments.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then we still accepted what happened, that was the opportunity that he decided to choose. But for me, for him to say those things, when my experience was that he directly chose outside opportunities, which would have affected the way the coaches thought about him or his opportunities. <\/p>\n
\u201cOther boys were working extremely hard, spending hours on the training track, trying to get better, whilst Josh is missing these sessions to take up other opportunities\u2026 that\u2019s his choice to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodwin also revealed he had no knowledge of the group chat Cavallo alleged mocked a photo of him and his partner.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not aware of any group chat. Again, I wasn\u2019t here the last few years, but from speaking to players, from that end, as far as I know, there was no group chat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Adelaide United also released a statement on Tuesday saying it was \u201cextremely disappointed\u201d by the claims made by Cavallo and \u201ccategorically rejects the allegations, including any suggestion that Adelaide United is homophobic\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll on-field decisions relating to team selection are made solely on footballing grounds,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdelaide United has always been committed to fostering an inclusive environment for players, staff and supporters and we remain proud of our ongoing work to promote inclusion across football.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrengthening inclusivity must remain an ongoing focus for the game, and the Club looks forward to hosting the fourth annual Pride Cup this weekend against Melbourne Victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Club will not be making any further comment at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cavallo of the Adelaide United A-League Men’s team. (Photo by Sarah Reed\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
JOSH CAVALLO\u2019S STATEMENT IN FULL:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s taken me a while to digest how my time at Adelaide United ended, but I think the fans deserve honesty.<\/p>\n
Leaving the club had nothing to do with football. Decisions were made by people in power that blocked my opportunities, not because of my talent, but because of who I choose to love. Under the new management, it became clear that I wasn\u2019t allowed on the pitch because of politics. It\u2019s hard to swallow when I realised my own club was homophobic. I was angry because people thought I was sidelined based on injuries, when in reality, it was internal homophobia that kept me on the bench. I stayed professional, kept my head down, and worked hard every day which I\u2019m proud of. Yet no matter how much I produced or improved, my contributions were continuously ignored. It brought a lot of negativity and affected my wellbeing as a professional footballer.<\/p>\n
This was exactly the fear I had about coming out, seeing prejudice affect my career in modern day. For the first time, I actually questioned if I should have kept my sexuality a secret. This brought up fears I had about coming out publicly, that being myself would affect my career. I felt incredibly isolated and wondered if I\u2019d made the mistake of sharing my story. I felt things going backwards, not just on the pitch, but in the one place I thought was a safe space and after seeing a group chat of teammates mocking a picture of me and my partner only added to this heartache.<\/p>\n
This fresh start in the UK has helped me breathe again and I hope I can fall back in love with the sport that means everything to me. Despite the way it ended behind the scenes, I refuse to let it ruin my connection to this city. Adelaide is where I found my wings. To the fans and supporters: thank you for your passion and backing. You deserve honesty and success. You were incredible to play in front of. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s first openly gay male professional footballer, Josh Cavallo, has accused Adelaide United of being homophobic \u2014 but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-414049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}