Joshua John Cavallo (born 13 November 1999) is an Australian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who last played for

A-League Men A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as ...

club

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

. Cavallo has represented the Australian under-20 national team.

Early life

Joshua John Cavallo was born on 13 November 1999 in

Bentleigh East, Victoria Bentleigh East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Bentleigh East recorded a population of 30,159 at the 2021 census. ...

. He is of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

and

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

descent. He says that he was initially more into playing tennis, but his brother encouraged him to kick a ball around in the backyard and it was not long before he "fell in love" with the game.

Career

Youth

Cavallo was scouted by a national program at the age of 15, and later offered a scholarship by

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

. He represented both

Melbourne Victory FC Youth Melbourne Victory Football Club Youth is the youth system of Melbourne Victory based in Melbourne, Victoria. The team plays in the National Premier Leagues, the second level of Australia's soccer pyramid in Australia. The club also competes in ...

and

Melbourne City FC Youth Melbourne City Football Club Youth is the youth system of Melbourne City Football Club based in Cranbourne East, Melbourne. The youth teams consist of an under-23s team that competes in senior levels of soccer in Victoria; currently the Vict ...

Western United

On 15 April 2019, Melbourne City announced that Cavallo would leave the club at the expiration of his contract at the end of the 2018–19 season. On 24 June 2019, new

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

side

Western United Western United Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Tarneit, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the regional ci ...

, representing western Melbourne suburbs and western Victorian regional towns, announced that Cavallo would join the club ahead of its inaugural season. He made his debut on 3 January 2020 in a 3–2 loss at his previous club. On as a 71st-minute substitute for

Apostolos Stamatelopoulos Apostolos Vasilios Stamatelopoulos (; born 9 April 1999) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a striker for club Motherwell and the Australia national team. Club career Adelaide United On 22 September 2017, Stamatelopoul ...

, he earned a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

when fouled by goalkeeper

Dean Bouzanis Dean Anthony Bouzanis (born 2 October 1990) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper. He is currently a free agent. He played junior football in Australia before joining English side Liverpool, appearing for the Acad ...

, which was converted by

Besart Berisha Besart Selim Berisha (born 29 July 1985) is a Kosovan professional football coach and former player who is the current assistant manager of Kosovo Superleague club Prishtina. Club career Youth and Hamburger SV Berisha began his youth career at ...

. Western United announced that Cavallo was leaving the club on 10 February 2021 to seek more playing time with another A-League club.

Adelaide United

On 18 February 2021, Cavallo signed a short-term contract to play for

. After a successful stint in the

2020–21 A-League The 2020–21 A-League was the 44th season of national level soccer in Australia, and the 16th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season was started on 28 December 2020 and concluded with the Grand Final on 27 June 2021. The s ...

, he signed a two-year contract extension on 11 May. He was rewarded with Adelaide United's A-League Rising Star award after a successful 2020–21 campaign, in which he started 15 games and made 18 appearances. He plays as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

and

central midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for the club. During the 2024-25 season, Cavallo failed to make a single appearance for Adelaide, only making the bench eight times throughout the season. He departed the club at the season's end.

National team

Cavallo was in the Australian under-19 national team which played in the

2018 AFC U-19 Championship The 2018 AFC U-19 Championship was the 40th edition of the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. It took place in Indonesia, which was ...

in October–November 2018, starting with a game against Korea Republic. Cavallo has represented the Australian under-20 national team. Cavallo hoped to make the team at the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

, but was not selected to play. He was disappointed at FIFA's decision to ban players from wearing "OneLove" armbands at the tournament

Personal life

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as gay in October 2021. At the time, there were no other openly gay male footballers playing professional top-flight football. He said in a statement, "I hope that in sharing who I am, I can show others who identify as

LGBTQ+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

that they are welcome in the football community". Cavallo said he had "never smiled so much in my life" and had "the best night's sleep" after his announcement. He was fully and explicitly supported by Adelaide United management and fellow players. The announcement was widely reported in the international press, and Cavallo received messages of support from many football players, including

Gerard Piqué Gerard Piqué Bernabeu (born 2 February 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He is considered to be one of the best defenders of his generation. Initially a talented student athlete at Barcelona's La ...

Marcus Rashford Marcus Rashford (born 31 October 1997) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa, on Loan (association football), lo ...

Antoine Griezmann Antoine Griezmann (; born 21 March 1991) is a French professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward or attacking midfielder for club Atlético Madrid. Considered one of the greatest players ...

Jordan Henderson Jordan Brian Henderson (born 17 June 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Eredivisie club Ajax, which he captains, and the England national team. He is noted for his leadership, versatility, and physicali ...

Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...

, and

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

, as well as fans, strangers, and celebrities such as

Lil Nas X Montero Lamar Hill (born April 9, 1999), better known by his stage name Lil Nas X ( ), is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He rose to prominence with the release of his 2018 country rap single "Old Town Road," the longest-running nu ...

and

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American former comedian, actress, television host, writer, and producer. She began her career in stand-up comedy in the early 1980s, gaining national attention with a 1986 appearance on '' ...

. Cavallo was the first high-profile player to come out during their career since English footballer

Justin Fashanu Justinus Soni "Justin" Fashanu ( ; 19 February 1961 – 2 May 1998) was an English footballer who played for a variety of clubs between 1978 and 1997. He was known by his early clubs to be gay, and came out publicly later in his career, becoming ...

made a similar announcement in 1990. Fashanu faced widespread

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

after the announcement. In May 2022 English footballer Jake Daniels came out, aged 17, becoming the UK's only male professional footballer to be publicly out at the time, and the first since Fashanu. He cited Cavallo among those who had helped him to come out. In March 2024, Cavallo proposed to his partner Leighton Morrell on the pitch at Coopers Stadium, Adelaide United's home ground. He posted three photos on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

, one of which showed Morrell wearing an

engagement ring An engagement ring, also known as a betrothal ring, is a ring indicating that the person wearing it is engaged to be married, especially in Western cultures. A ring is presented as an engagement gift by a partner to their prospective spouse ...

, and thanked his club for their support and encouragement to live his life authentically.

Recognition

He won Adelaide United's Rising Star award for the 2020–21 season. In 2022, Cavallo received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from

Flinders University Flinders University, established as The Flinders University of South Australia is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia, with a footprint extending across a number of locations in South Australia and ...

in Adelaide, in recognition of "his exceptional contributions as a role model in elite men's sport and as a champion for equality". Cavallo was nominated as 2023 SA Young Australian of the Year.

Career statistics

Footnotes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cavallo, Josh 1999 births Living people People from Bentleigh, Victoria Sportsmen from Victoria (state) Australian men's soccer players Soccer players from Melbourne Men's association football midfielders Melbourne Victory FC players Melbourne City FC players Western United FC players Adelaide United FC players National Premier Leagues players A-League Men players Australian LGBTQ soccer players Australian gay sportsmen Australian people of Italian descent Sportspeople of Italian descent Australian people of Maltese descent 21st-century Australian sportsmen