Patrice Evra Claims Some West Ham Players Would Refuse To Shower With Gay Teammates

Patrice Evra has claimed that some West Ham players said they would refuse to shower with a gay teammate during his time at the London club.

Former Manchester United star Evra, 40, spent four months at the London Stadium at the end of his career, making just five appearances for the Hammers before eventually retiring in 2019.

Speaking on Gabby Logan's Mid Point podcast, Evra claimed West Ham were once visited by a Football Association official, who came to give a talk about inclusion at the club.

Evra claims some West Ham players voiced homophobic attitudes during his time at the club (Image: PA)

But they were met with opposition by some players in the squad.

"It's like you can't be gay in football [as] a player, people will go mad," said Evra.

"I give the example, when I was playing for West Ham, someone from the English federation came and he said 'we need to accept everyone' and [the] amount of players that were like 'no, if some of my team mates are gay they have to leave now, I won't do any shower [with them]'.

"I stand up and I say 'shut up, shut up everyone, can you hear yourselves?'

Evra believes there are at least two gay players in every football team (Image: PA)

"We were in [2018] at the time and we still don't accept everyone. In the football world they are not open minded enough and it's a shame."

West Ham have no knowledge of the incident or of Evra flagging any comments at the time, according to The Mirror.

Evra has previously spoken about the issue of homophobia in football and says he believes there are at least two gay players at every club.

But the former France international believes some of his teammates were afraid to come out due to homophobic attitudes in the dressing room.

He added: "I understand because even myself when the [gay] players they were coming to me I was like, be careful because if you say [it] loud you see the reaction of all the players but I will support you and because I had such a power in the dressing room I will protect [you], I will support you."

There are currently no openly gay players in the Premier League but efforts have been to make English football more inclusive through the Rainbow Laces campaign.

Meanwhile, West Ham were awarded the Premier League's Equality Standard Advanced level accolade last year.

Topics: West Ham United, Patrice Evra, Football, Premier League

Rory O'Callaghan

Rory O'Callaghan is Editorial Lead at SPORTbible. He has previously worked for Sky Sports News, MailOnline and Reach covering football, cricket, boxing and MMA. Tested daily as a Liverpool fan in a Manchester office.

@rory_ocallaghan