The Brazilian Footballer Who Never Was
How one boy’s dream was cut short by the beautiful game’s ugly prejudice in Brazil.
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)
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'Football is a macho sport. It’s a place for men'
Duration: 01:57
Broadcasts
- Thu 3 Jan 201913:32GMTBBC World Service except News Internet
- Thu 3 Jan 201918:06GMTBBC World Service Australasia
- Thu 3 Jan 201921:06GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Thu 3 Jan 201923:06GMTBBC World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Fri 4 Jan 201902:32GMTBBC World Service
- Sat 5 Jan 201916:06GMTBBC World Service News Internet
- Sun 6 Jan 201905:32GMTBBC World Service
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