Blackpool’s Jake Daniels says he’s met his ‘soulmate’ after coming out as gay

Daniels became the first UK male professional footballer to come out as gay since Justin Fashanu

Daniels made history last year by becoming the first UK male professional footballer to come out as gay since Justin Fashanu in 1990.

The 18-year-old initially told Sky Sports News that he considered waiting 'until retirement' to go public but decided that it wouldn't allow him to be himself.

"Since I've come out to my family, my club and my teammates, that period of overthinking everything and the stress it created has gone. It was impacting my mental health," he said.

"Now I am just confident and happy to be myself finally."

One year on and the forward revealed he is now in a happy relationship with his 'soulmate' Mark, who began chatting to him on Instagram.

In a recent episode of Rylan Clark’s BBC Sounds show How To Be a Man, he said: "I came out and had my Instagram, my Twitter taken off me.

"So I didn’t see anything. I think when I had my Instagram back I had 20,000 message requests or something ridiculous like that, I’d never seen that in my life.

"There was one day, I was about to get on a train and I went on my message requests just to have a gander and the top message was from my [now] partner, just congratulating me.

"I had a sneaky look on his Instagram and I was like, ‘Alright!’ Dropped a message back and said ‘Thank you so much’ – and at the end asked something like ‘Is there anything else I can do for you?’ I knew what my motive was!

"We got chatting from then, we FaceTimed a few times, met up a few days later in Blackpool and we’ve been together ever since."

In a recent interview with Sky Sports, the 18-year-old said that the response has been 'amazing' and hearing stories of others who have since come out as a result of Daniels was a 'warm, proud moment' for him.

Related links: