The more casual fan of club soccer may have been unfamiliar with the name of Liam Rosenior when he was confirmed as the new Chelsea head coach this week.
As a player, the 41-year-old made over 140 Premier League appearances for Fulham, Reading, Hull and Brighton, but never won a senior England international cap. He moved into coaching in 2018.
Off the field, however, Rosenior stood out for his insight and awareness around the culture of the men’s game. A Guardian columnist also in demand from TV and radio, he was prepared to take on topics that other professionals wouldn’t, including the challenges faced by gay and bi footballers.
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It’s one reason why his appointment by Chelsea, who won the FIFA Club World Cup last summer and are ranked among the top 10 most valuable soccer clubs on the planet, is an encouraging step for not just Blues fans but supporters more broadly.
Advocacy runs in the family. His father, Leroy Rosenior, was honored with an MBE in 2019 for his work on tackling discrimination in football and society. Leroy was a striker during the 1980s and 1990s, when racism was overt in the English game.
While at West Ham, one of his teammates was Justin Fashanu, and Leroy spoke later of his regret that he wasn’t more vocal in his support of a man who became the world’s first professional soccer player to come out as gay, just a few months after leaving the Hammers.
But even in the early days of his media career, Liam was confident to speak out about topics which others in football would shy away from.
His Guardian articles included praise for Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the National Anthem at NFL games in the U.S. He recalled a time in Miami when he went to report the loss of his passport, and how an officer refused to help, claiming bizarrely that a Black man couldn’t be British.
In consecutive years, Rosenior accepted invitations to discuss the Rainbow Laces campaign on a TV show on Sky Sports.
On the second occasion, he was alongside two out gay men working in the game — referee Ryan Atkin and player-care professional Hugo Scheckter. I was working full-time at Sky Sports back then and helped with questions and planning for the shows.
I thought Rosenior spoke really well on both occasions. In August 2017, he’d been interviewed by Sky Sports News and had said he loved living in Brighton because it was so diverse and vibrant. He mentioned the LGBTQ community as part of that.
Great experience on #TheDebate @SkySports discussing #football #RainbowLaces. A great discussion with @GeoffShreeves, @rosenior_liam23 & @HugoScheckter
Honest and open views, with positivity for the future making sport everyone’s game! #lgbt #referee pic.twitter.com/hPZy9h17fB
— Ryan Atkin (@ryantatkin) November 27, 2018
He acknowledged how the thoughtless use of language was holding football back, and said he would “feel terrible” if one of his teammates was gay and told him he didn’t feel supported within the club. The defender understood that coming out publicly wasn’t a realistic prospect for many gay or bi players, but wanted them to know they’d be accepted.
On the November 2018 show, I recall how Rosenior got into some minor difficulty around his use of the word “choice” — he was talking about the decision a gay player would have to make over whether to come out or not — but it was all clarified and put in context later. I doubt social media would be so understanding today.
Writing in The Guardian, he said: “We need to do more than wear rainbow laces, we need to work towards enabling a culture where a footballer can be famous, gay and proud.”
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Several years later, professional soccer is still a considerable distance away from that cultural goal. Sometimes, it even feels like we are in reverse.
In the UK, a couple of players did publicly come out as gay — young striker Jake Daniels, and Scotland’s Zander Murray — but they’re no longer currently active in the pro game. Josh Cavallo recently moved from Australia to England and is now with seventh-tier Stamford AFC, while there are not thought to be any gay or bi players contracted to men’s pro clubs anywhere in the world at this moment.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Laces has been dropped by The FA and the Premier League, although the latter plans to launch a new Pride activation in early February, in what is LGBT+ History Month in the UK and the Football v Homophobia campaign’s Month of Action.
If that initiative is going to cut through the modern-day cynicism, it will need respected figures like Rosenior to explain its relevance.
@chelseafc Ready to get started. 👊 #ChelseaFC #CFC ♬ original sound – Chelsea FC
Chelsea Pride, the club’s LGBTQ supporters group which celebrates its 10th birthday in 2026, are hopeful, with co-chair Tracy Brown telling Outsports: “We already see values in Liam that resonate deeply with our community.”
Homophobic chanting and reports of anti-LGBTQ incidents directed towards Chelsea fans are on the rise again. Having a men’s team boss with a track record of calling out discrimination is a huge benefit.
Brown continued: “We recall [his] powerful message… reflecting on the importance of creating environments where people feel supported and confident to be themselves, particularly when it comes to tackling homophobic language and behaviour in football. His voice added to the chorus calling for greater openness in the game.”
Rosenior faces a daunting task in the blue corner of west London, where, since 2010, managers and head coaches have lasted on average a little over 12 months before leaving their jobs.
In his initial message to the fans, he said: “There is a culture of winning, and those are the values and traditions I want to uphold.”
It’s always about results first and foremost, but the new guy in the Chelsea hotseat has a big chance to make an impact on inclusion in football as well. LGBTQ fans, whatever their club allegiance, will hope he is successful on that front.
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