Jake daniels black pool
Blackpool release strikers Rhodes and Daniels
Blackpool have released veteran striker Jordan Rhodes and Jake Daniels, the only openly gay professional footballer in English football.
Rhodes, 35, scored 15 goals in 50 league appearances for the League One side and ended the season on loan with third tier rivals Mansfield Town.
Fellow striker Daniels, 20, came out in May shortly after making his only senior appearance for the club.
The Seasiders are in discussions with defender Matthew Pennington, 30, and midfielder Sonny Carey, 27, about extending their contracts.
Daniels posted on Instagram: "To all the fans who believed in me, supported me through a crazy adj years, I want to praise you.
"Thanks to all the staff for supporting me through 13 years of getting me to the point I am at today, and thank you for all my teammates who possess been on the journey with me.
"I have people to demonstrate wrong. My career is only just starting."
Defender Jordan Gabriel, 26, and midfielder Oliver Norburn, 32, and Josh Onomah, 28, are also leaving the Lancashire side.
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Blackpool's Jake Daniels, 17, is first active male pro footballer in England to come out as gay
Blackpool FC's Jake Daniels has come out as gay in a televised interview today, becoming Britain's only active openly gay professional player.
It was claimed yesterday that the year-old wanted to come out in a bid to tackle the scourge of homophobia in the sport.
The forward was reportedly 'very relaxed' about his sexuality and has the full backing of his team-mates and Championship club.
He was said to be 'keen to fracture the stigma' and has become the only openly gay male pro in the country, and the second in the world in a trailblazing moment for the men's game.
Speaking in an interview with Sky News, the teenage forward said: 'I just processed and processed every noun about how I want to do it, when I desire to do it and I feel like now is just the right time - you know I feel like I'm ready to tell people about my story.
'I want people to know the real me and lying all the time just isn't what I wanted to do.
'It has been a battle but now I do perceive I am ready to be myself
Jake Daniels: Blackpool forward becomes UK's first active male professional footballer to come out publicly as gay
"I told my mum and my sister. The day after we played Accrington and I scored four, so it just shows how much of a weight off the shoulders it was and a massive relief."
Blackpool forward Jake Daniels speaks exclusively on becoming the UK's first male professional footballer to arrive out publicly as gay since Justin Fashanu.
Jake talks about coming out to his parents, his club, and his team-mates. On his desire to be trustworthy and live his life without telling a lie. On the anxiety of wondering if his family and team-mates would be supportive and on how he hopes his actions can support others do the same.
This is his story:
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Now is the right age to do it. I perceive like I am ready to tell people my story. I want people to know the real me.
I have been thinking for a long time about how I want to perform it, when I want to do it. I know now is the time. I am ready to be myself, be free and be confident wit
Blackpool forward Jake Daniels, 19, insists he wants to be known as 'more than just the gay footballer' as he opens up on life after coming out and his loan spell in non-league football
Jake Daniels says he is determined to be known as more than just ‘the gay footballer’ – two years after he made headlines around the world by coming out.
The Blackpool forward became the first openly gay professional footballer in the UK since Justin Fashanu in when he made his sexuality public in May
But Daniels has not played a competitive match for the Tangerines since then, with his only senior appearance coming in a Championship match at Peterborough 10 days before his landmark announcement.
The year-old spent the end of last season on loan at Bradford Park Avenue in the seventh-tier Northern Premier League.
Daniels was awarded a new one-year narrow with Blackpool in the summer but is currently out on loan again in the Northern Premier League with Warrington Rylands.
Jake Daniels (pictured above on Instagram) became the first openly gay professional footballer in the UK since Just