Professional soccer player Jesus Datolo is under fire from the president of his team for posing in his underwear in Argentinian gay magazine Romeo Mag. Napoli team president Aurelio De Laurentis is said to be considering sanctions against the player for his revealing spread. Oh yes, the Europeans (Napoli is an Italian team) are soooo much more advanced than we backward Americans.
Even in the uber-macho world of European soccer, it’s tough to believe a team would actually punish a player for being in a gay magazine. De Laurentis should be reeeeeally careful about where he’s headed with this one.
A couple photos from the spread after the jump.
Hat tip to Craig Howell.
on Jan 6th, 2010 at 12:13 PM
Actually, it would be helpful if cuty-pie Datolo (aka Gesu’ Bambinuccio) were plainly revealed as being straight, e.g. as being the master of a harem of kept women. That way, he might get across the valuable message that, what with his bulging shorts, he has nothing to lose, and much to gain, from being admired by certain sensitive men.
And as for the team, the Neapolitans, the Europeans, etc.: It is indeed a sad thing, that athletic competitiveness is vicariously associated with heterosexual/straight-masculine virtue. But athletes were never exclusively “straight.” Hopefully Gesu’ Bambinuzzu’s example will start some guys thinking.
As with the Sherlock Holmes movie, and the pleasant comments by Robert Downey Jr., so here too in Naples, the money-makers, the producers, are doing their best to crush any same-sex appreciation of beauty and love, for fear that the young male audience/viewership, presumably homophobic, and dreading contamination with anything “gay,” may refuse to buy admission tickets.
Well, those money-makers may indeed know something realistic about superhomophobic young male consumers of video. But they do not know everything. And they hardly merit the “profile in courage” which in fact those young men might well appreciate.
on Jan 6th, 2010 at 8:25 PM
“uber-macho world of European soccer”
You’re hilarious. These guys cry and wail for an hour when someone bumps into them. Elderly people with broken hips get up faster.
on Jan 7th, 2010 at 8:01 PM
Sounds like some of our uber-macho basketball players Ted.
on Jan 8th, 2010 at 10:01 AM
Wow, if Brady Quinn were fined for his photos in gay magazines and websites, he’d be broke.
on Jan 11th, 2010 at 9:40 AM
I’ll agree with Ted on this one. You’ll see more diving and crying in a european soccer game than you’d ever see in olympic diving competitions.
on Jan 13th, 2010 at 2:26 PM
What a shame to see someone face potential punishment for sharing such a beautiful body with admiring fans!
on Jan 18th, 2010 at 3:06 AM
No!
This is all wrong and a misunderstanding!
In one of the pictures he’s wearing a Napoli shirt and Napoli werent told that one of their players would be wearing a shirt on the spread and they werent told and the mag was supposed to pay a fee.
Thats all.
Nothing serious.
on Jan 25th, 2010 at 3:39 PM
I WISH I WAS DEAD!!!! I HATE BEING GAY!!!! IT’S NOT FAIR I HAVE TO BE HATED ALL THE F***ING TIME!!!! I HATE MYSELF!!!! I’M JUST GARBAGE!!!! I DIDN’T DECIDE TO BE THIS WAY AND IT’S NOT FAIR THE WAY ALL THIS CRAP IS!!!! WHY?!!!!
on Jan 25th, 2010 at 3:57 PM
EVERYONE ELSE IS STRAIGHT!!!! WHY COULDN’T I BE BORN STRAIGHT TOO!!!! IT’S NOT FAIR!!!! I WISH I COULD BE MASCULINE AND ATHLETIC LIKE SOME GUYS!!!! IT’S NOT FAIR!!!! I HATE BEING DIFFERENT!!!!
on Jul 2nd, 2010 at 8:19 AM
Cyd, Italy no offence may be Europe but YOU know it’s in the dar ages…