David Beckham: football has improved since ‘racism and homophobia’ of my playing days

David Beckham has said he is glad football has improved since the prejudice he saw in his playing days. “I played for 22 years, I saw a lot of racism and homophobia and do think it has changed” he told The Londoner’s Diary . “But there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

Beckham said of Blackpool’s Jake Daniels, who came out as the first gay current player this month: “It’s a shame that when someone does come out that it’s such a strange thing. I’ve always felt that way about when someone does come out… it shouldn’t be”. He went on: “At the end of the day there will be a huge amount of gay people in sports and why should they be any different from anyone else.”

The former Manchester United player, who now owns a football team in Miami, was speaking at an event for his Haig whisky brand at Sushisamba restaurant last night, and is getting excited about summer.

Beckham said his family are spending the period in Florida to be near son Romeo, who currently plays for the Beckham owned team. “Usually we love to be in Europe for the summer, but we like to be together as a family,” he said.

“[Romeo is] getting older now, so at some point he’s going to want to be with his girlfriend or mates and not want to spend the summer with us but he has no choice,” Beckham joked.

It comes after the whole family travelled to Florida for Brookyln Beckham’s wedding to Nicola Peltz on April 9. Beckham plans to catch up with the newlyweds over the summer months too. “Brooklyn will be hopefully in Palm Beach,” he said. “He’ll be able to hopefully come down with his new wife.”