Meet Josh Cavallo’s New Boyfriend Leighton Morrell 

Josh Cavallo has found love, with the Australian footballer posting adorable photos of his new boyfriend Leighton Morrell. 

The Adelaide United Football Club player posted a video of trying to kiss his boyfriend and wrote, “Our goodnight kisses”, with a dinosaur and heart emoji. 

Cavallo’s boyfriend, Leighton Morrell, an electrician who lives in Australia, according to his Instagram bio. Morrell has posted photos of himself playing rugby and has used ‘inclusive sports’ hashtags. 

Cavallo first confirmed the news in November last year, when he shared cute photos on Instagram with his boyfriend Leighton as they celebrated the soccer player’s birthday together.  “Birthday cele. Thank you for the sweet messages you beautiful people,” Josh wrote in the caption.

Coming Out

Cavallo came out as gay in 2021. At the age of 21, he became the first gay top-flight male professional footballer, playing in the A-League competition.

In a candid video posted to X (formerly Twitter),  Cavallo described his personal experience of coming out, stating that it had been a journey “to get to this point in my life” but he could not be happier with his decision to share the news with the public. 

“I have been fighting my sexuality for over six years now, and I’m glad I can put that to rest. For the people that know me personally, you’ll know I’m a private person. Growing up, I always felt the need to hide myself because I was ashamed. Ashamed I would never be able to do what I loved and be gay. Hiding who I truly am, to pursue a dream I always wished for as a kid, to play football and be treated equally never felt like a reality”, he said. 

LGBTQI Advocate

Since his coming out, Cavallo has used his platform to champion LGBTQ+ rights on a global scale. The soccer player criticised FIFA for organising the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a nation where homosexuality is still deemed illegal.

Cavallo told CNN that FIFA’s decision to ban players from wearing “OneLove” armbands at the Qatar 2022 made him feel “excluded”, and criticised FIFA’s  “draconian” decision to penalise players if they decided to don the armbands. 

“You know, representation is so important and there’s so many people watching these games, you know, that it just shows that FIFA’s intentions are not to make … football a place for everyone, you know.

“We have families watching, we have the next generation watching. FIFA needs to do better. It’s the world game,”, he said.