"I am not going to live a secret life anymore" Biggleswade United manager Cristian Colás comes out as gay

Biggleswade United's manager, Cristian Colás has become the latest in just a handful of football coaches working in the sport today to come out as gay.

His decision to speak out about his sexual orientation comes after what he describes as "quite a journey" as he struggled to juggle his footballing life with his private one as well as a secret life that only those closest to him knew about.

In a frank interview with the BBC LGBD podcast the Barcelona-born coach who is now in his second spell at the club talked about his fears that the discovery of his sexual orientation could end up destroying his footballing ambitions.

"It's been quite a journey. Football was my priority. It was like a public life where everyone knew what I was doing and a private one also where only the ones I wanted to knew about it," he said.

"But then I was living a secret life that absolutely no one except my parents and my brother knew about. And that was because of football."

"I thought my sexuality could destroy my plans and ambitions to achieve what I wanted to in football and impact massively in a negative way."

He realised he would have to do something when some incidents made him realise that not doing anything was impacting on his ability to do his job.

"I realised I was reacting angrily with everyone before realising that actually I was angry with myself. I was the main problem. I knew that I did not want to live my life like this. From now on I will have my public life, my private life but I am not going to live a secret life anymore."

Cristian added that he has no desire to be seen as a flagship crusader but rather as someone who can just live their life in a normal way.

"I used to travel and hide from everyone who I was travelling with and when things turned bad I had no one to turn to to get help from."

"Luckily now we have some role models. I'm proud of each one of them and happy they have been brave but it should not have to be like that."

But above all what he is most happy about is that there are players out there who have come out "because that will help massively those coming up, so they will know what to do and know that this sport is a safe place for them and that they don't have to leave the game they love because of their sexuality."

Asked whether he thought coming out had made him a better manager, he said, "No I don't think so, but I think I'm a better person because I accepted myself. It hasn't impacted on my football career, on what I do day by day, but it has made me better with those people that I love and that surround me."

Cristian's decision to come out has received the wholehearted backing of everyone at the club. Club chairman, Guillem Balague said this week: "Everyone at the club is fully supportive of Cristian's decision to take a stand on this matter although it was always his decision to do so. The reaction from everyone has been outstanding."

"At our last game fans of all ages spoke to Cristian to offer their support and to say how proud they were about his decision to go public."

"The players’ reaction has been one of total acceptance because they like all of us know in terms of his ability to do the job his sexual orientation is an irrelevance."

"Cristian Colás was hired as coach at Biggleswade United for the simple reason that he is a coach of the highest calibre and we are truly blessed to have him at our club."