Chelsea and England left-back, the footballer who read a broadsheet on the team bus
FootballGraeme Le Saux never quite fitted the football dressing room caricature of the 1990s.
He arrived at Chelsea as a teenager from Jersey in 1987, moved to Blackburn Rovers and won the 1994/95 Premier League title in Kenny Dalglish's side, then returned to Chelsea for a second spell. In between he won 36 England caps and played in the 1998 World Cup. The career was high quality throughout: a technically excellent left-back with an eye for an attacking pass in an era when most of his contemporaries were more interested in the challenge than the overlap. At Chelsea he won the FA Cup in both 1997 and 2000, and the League Cup in 1998.
Off the pitch Le Saux had a reputation that grew almost in parallel with the football. He read The Guardian, collected antiques, stood out from a dressing room culture that was not always welcoming to anyone who failed to conform. He dealt with the nonsense that came with that by standing up for himself when it mattered, and has written and spoken with articulate honesty about the homophobic abuse he endured from opposition crowds during his playing career. He was never gay. He simply refused to play along with the assumption that a footballer had to be a particular kind of man.
Since retiring he has moved into broadcasting, anti-discrimination work, and the kind of thoughtful speaking engagement where the football is the vehicle for a bigger story. He remains one of the most quietly influential voices in the game.
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