Serie A footballer announces retirement from football after coming out as gay

2025-08-21 11:21:16Sport SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Serie A footballer announces retirement from football after coming out as gay

The Czech midfielder, who was coming after two seasons at Cagliari, announced his decision to retire from football in an Instagram story.

"I have received many messages asking if I will continue my football career. Unfortunately the answer is no. The reason is simple, I suffered a very serious injury, the ankle ligament is completely damaged. I was trying to overcome it to face the season," Jankto writes.

He made the final decision due to the need to be closer to his son David, born from a relationship with model Marketa Ottomanska: "The key point is my son, I want to spend more time with him, so I decided to move to Prague. Thank you to everyone who has supported me."

On February 13, 2023, Jankto made the statement, becoming the first footballer of a major national team to announce that he was gay.

After his experiences at Udinese, he returned to play in Italy in the summer of 2023, under the guidance of Claudio Ranieri, the coach who had also trained him at Sampdoria. Jankto has now become the coach of the U17 team of Dukla Prague.


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