Jake Daniels (born 8 January 2005) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a forward for EFL Championship club Blackpool.

Career

A youth product of Blackpool since the age of seven, Daniels began playing with their U18s in 2021 and was named Blackpool's youth team player of the season for 2020–21, scoring 30 goals for the U18s. He signed his first professional contract with the club on 25 February 2022, and joined Northern Premier League side

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is an urban village in Lancashire, England, south-east of Preston, in the borough of South Ribble. The name derives from the Old English "bēam" and "brycg", which probably means "tree-trunk bridge". The population was 13,945 at ...

on loan on 26 March for the remainder of the 2021–22 season. He made his debut for the Blackpool senior side in a 5–0 EFL Championship loss to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

on 7 May, coming on as an 81st-minute substitute.

Personal life

In May 2022, Daniels

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, becoming the UK's only male professional footballer to be publicly out at the time, and the first since Justin Fashanu in 1990. He cited fellow footballer Josh Cavallo, Thetford Town manager Matt Morton, and diver

Tom Daley Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

as helping him come out. His decision to come out was praised by British Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

, FA president

Prince William William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educa ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

captain

Harry Kane Harry Edward Kane (born 28 July 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Tottenham Hotspur and captains the England national team. A prolific goalscorer with strong link play, Kane is regarded as one of ...

. On 29 June, he was shortlisted in the Celebrity of the Year category for the 2022

National Diversity Awards The National Diversity Awards is an awards ceremony which honours positive role models, entrepreneurs and community organisations across several different strands within the equality and diversity sector. It is held annually in various venues ac ...

for the "courageous decision" he made the previous month.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Jake 2005 births Living people People from Bispham, Blackpool English footballers Blackpool F.C. players Bamber Bridge F.C. players English Football League players Northern Premier League players Association football forwards British LGBT footballers English LGBT sportspeople Gay sportsmen