Beginnings

Marcus Urban (*1971, formerly Marcus Schneider) grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in Weimar, Thuringia in the GDR with his mother and stepfather. His youth at home was characterized by aloofness and a certain emotional coldness. His desire for love and recognition by his parents remained almost always unrequited. In retrospect, his youth was ‘often unhappy for him, determined by others and unfree’, Urban recalls.

By performing well at school, Marcus tried to win the approval and love of his parents, without really succeeding. Another promised field to be an opportunity to express himself, to be loved and be accepted turned up: the football pitch.

Finding Football

Football opened up a new world for Marcus Urban. From the age of 13, he went to the children’s and youth sports school in Erfurt, which was part of the GDR’s sports promotion programme. The aim of the politically motivated GDR’s sports promotion programme was to lead talented young people to top-class sport at an early age. He was called up to the national youth team and played in the junior teams of Rot-Weiss Erfurt. With Rot-Weiss Erfurt the midfielder won the youth championship in the GDR in 1985. This was followed by invitation to join the national youth team for international matches against Sweden, France and the Czech Republic.

A successful generation

The GDR’s sports development programme at the time produced numerous players who went on later to play successfully in the Bundesliga and national team after the German reunification. This generation included Bernd Schneider, Thomas Linke, Steffen Freund and Frank Rost. In 1986, the ‘U 19’ team of the GDR with players such as the later professionals Axel Kruse, Dirk Schuster and Matthias Sammer won the UEFA European Junior Championship 3:1 in the final against Italy.

The end of the GDR and the German reunification in 1990 also led to an exodus of numerous players to the West and to the wealthy clubs in the Bundesliga. In addition to those already mentioned, they included Thomas Doll, Ulf Kirsten, Andreas Thom, Dariusz Wosz, Olaf Marschall and Robert Enke.

Finding himself

While others successfully entered professional football, the highly talented player Urban could not bridge the dissonance between reality and appearance, between the ritualised masculinity of football and his homosexuality. For too long, his personality had suffered from repression and needed to create clarity. to himself and later to the world.

He came out as a gay man in an interview in 2007 and in 2008 in his biography ‘Versteckspieler. The story of gay footballer Marcus Urban’ by Ronny Blaschke was published in 2008. This made him the first male German footballer to make his homosexuality public. To date, only Thomas Hitzlsperger has taken this step following the end of his career in 2014, which was widely publicized due to his popularity, including as a player for the German national team. For Urban, it was ‘a long, rocky road’ until then. On this path, ‘there were many hurdles to overcome and also bad moments.’

Since turning his back on the goal of becoming a professional footballer, Urban has seemingly reinvented himself several times. He successfully studied Urban and Regional Planning at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, specialising in renewable energies. He worked as a designer in the fashion and design metropolis of Milan and in recent years has been particularly active as a consultant and coach for individuals and organisations on topics such as diversity and intercultural competence and also heads as managing director the Association for Diversity in Sport and Society.

Coming out and beyond

As a member of the world football team, Urban was nominated alongside players such as Lilian Thuram, Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto’o by Spanish journalists Moya and Arellano. All of those nominated for this world selection are united by the fact that their commitment and significance extends far beyond football.

There is a touch of melancholy when Urban looks back and thinks of what would have been possible with his footballing talent. But he quickly focusses on the essentials: that he has found himself, can be who he wants to be and what he has achieved: as a designer, consultant, coach etc.. He carries one particular concern with him: overcoming the taboo of homosexuality in professional football. Until today no active professional football player in Germany came out as gay.

He is working at various levels to ensure that life paths of gay people are not still blocked, decades after his own experience due to discrimination. He is currently preparing a group coming-out programme for players and officials, particularly in the German professional football leagues. The project is supported by clubs such as Borussia Dortmund, VfB Stuttgart, SC Freiburg and FC St. Pauli. With such a collective action, the attention and burden would be spread across many shoulders and the issue could be normalised and accepted much more quickly.

Stefan Florenski

Looking back and looking forward, Urban says: ‘My goal was to become free, self-determined and happy. I’m now passing that on to other footballers and people.’ He is certain that the day will come when things will be different.

Thinking points

Marcus Urban is an example of how sexual orientation can create an obstacle to a promising professional football career. This story can help students reflect on several issues:

What do you expect would happen if one / a group of active professional players came out?
What could be the reasons that (male) homosexuality remains a taboo in football?
What do you think could help the process of inclusivity in football?