Football Fern Meikayla Moore has played a role in the nomination of Liverpool FC manager Jurgen Klopp for an award recognising his efforts to spread awareness and positivity for the LGBT+ community.
The 54-year-old Klopp has been nominated alongside motor racing champion Lewis Hamilton, actor Daniel Radcliffe and singer Jade Thirlwall as the LGBT+ Celebrity Ally of 2022 and the winner will be announced at Britain’s LGBT Awards in June.
Klopp has been a vocal advocate for the community and continues to wear rainbow laces – a symbol of his support – especially since taking part in a broadcast discussion with New Zealand’s Moore in November.
Christchurch-born Moore (25) plays for Liverpool FC’s women’s team and her sit-down chat with Klopp helped to open up discussions about the need to support footballers who may be struggling with their sexuality.
She described her own experiences of being an openly-gay footballer and her commitment to the Rainbow Laces campaign.
Moore said she feels accepted within football.
Klopp says the environment in men’s football was different to women’s and there were no players in the English Premier League who were openly gay. He said he wanted to help make it possible for players to feel comfortable about doing so.
Klopp: ‘Whatever I can do … I will do. I’m completely in.’
In the chat, Klopp says:
“I’m 54 and I’ve been through a lot of different periods in my life but there’s a lot of problems I’ve never had so it means you talk about them like an interested viewer and think ‘How would that feel?’, but never having the problem.
“I have so many gay friends in our age now and I never thought about how it was when they had to say: ‘By the way Mum / Dad / whoever, I’m not exactly how you expected it may be’, and that’s a challenge we should not face in the way we face it in our life so that’s it and how it still is, obviously.
“Whatever I can do, and I will say it here today live on camera, I will do. I’m completely in.”
Klopp’s sit-down with Moore
Watch the 7-minute video discussion between Klopp and Moore on Liverpool FC’s YouTube channel here:
Meikayla Moore
As a junior and youth player, she played for Burwood, Avon United and Coastal Spirit before starting her professional career with Bundesliga clubs FC Köln and then MSV Duisburg in Germany.
She joined Liverpool in 2020.
Moore has represented New Zealand at U-17, U-20 and full international level with the Football Ferns.
