'We will always support him' - Gala Fairydean Rovers ace Danny Galbraith reveals his and team-mates' backing for Scotland's first openly gay male professional footballer Zander Murray

Murray, 30, told this newspaper in a recent interview that he felt a massive sense of relief and joy at being able to be himself at last, rather than continuing to not come out publicly. Every other gay male player in this country has so far kept their homosexuality a secret, winning Murray plaudits for his courage.

“I think none of us will ever understand what it’s been like for Zander,” Galbraith told The Southern Reporter. "Because it’s clearly been difficult. Absolutely nothing has changed from our point of view. We are delighted that he’s clearly now in a better place than he was previously.

"He will get absolutely all the support – and has had all the support – that he would possibly need from us. He is still our star striker and we all think the world of him anyway.

"We live in 2022. In a way it’s sad that it’s got to this point for somebody to have the courage or the bravery to say: ‘I’m going to take that step’.

"Absolutely fair play to Zander for doing that because it certainly couldn’t have been easy.

"From our point of view he’s still the Zander he was before and will be. And for us that’s a really key player who hopefully can kick on to even greater things now that he – from his own point of view – is in a better place.”

Galbraith reckons that other gay footballers could now follow his team-mate’s lead by also coming out.

"With anything in life I suppose it always takes somebody to set the trend to be the one to make that step,” the midfielder added.

"As Zander has said numerous times himself, if he can inspire others to do that who are maybe feeling like previously they couldn’t then that can only be a brilliant thing.

"Let’s be honest, it’s not necessarily something that people would think about, but when you look at the number of players playing football then you would have to say it was a huge surprise that up until Zander there had been nobody (who had come out as gay).

"But I would like to think society’s in a better place where that isn’t a problem because it’s not. Everybody’s unique in their own rights and Zander is still Zander, there has been absolutely no change at our club and he would tell you that.

"A big weight has been lifted off his shoulders and no matter what anybody goes through in life, that can only be a positive.

"When you see a spring in his step that maybe wasn’t there before, that can only be a good thing.

"Sadly there can never be anything in any walk of life where you can make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time.

"That’s not real life. There will always be people who sadly try and pick flaws in certain things or shine a negative light on things.

"I would like to think there are more people of a different opinion who can see the good that can come of it and can support people in their own journey and that’s certainly what we’ll do with Zander.”