The Brazilian Footballer Who Never Was

The Documentary Podcast

• Episode: The Brazilian Footballer Who Never Was
• Website: The Documentary Podcast
• Feed URL: http://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/p02nq0lx.rss
• Duration: 00:26:45
• Published: 2019-01-03 14:45

At 12, Douglas Braga arrived in Rio de Janeiro, a wide-eyed boy, ready to live out the Brazilian dream and become a professional footballer. At 18, he was signed by one of the country’s top teams - but was also starting to realise he couldn’t be true to himself and be a footballer. By 21, he’d quit the game. He knew he was gay and felt there was no place for him in a macho culture where homophobia is commonplace and out gay men are nowhere to be seen. Now, at 36, Douglas lives in a country that just elected a self-styled “proud homophobe” as president, which some football fans have taken as a licence to step up their homophobic abuse and threats. But Douglas is back on the pitch and - with a growing number of other gay footballers - fighting back. Reporter David Baker Producer: Simon Maybin (Image: Footballer’s legs with rainbow socks. Credit: BBC)