Australian football player Josh Cavallo was BOTD in 1999. Born in Bentleigh East, Victoria, he developed an early interest in sport, and was talent-scouted at 15, joining the Melbourne Victory Football Club and playing in professional youth squads. He joined Western United FC in 2019 before moving to Adelaide United in 2021, where he won the club’s Rising Star Award. He came out as gay in October 2021, making him the first professional male footballer since English player Justin Fashanu to publicly declare his homosexuality. Cavallo’s announcement was widely reported in the international press, drawing praise from prominent football players and LGBTQ celebrities including Lil Nas X and Ellen DeGeneres. Many media commentators were quick to compare Cavallo’s positive experience with that of Fashanu, who endured widespread abuse after coming out in 1990 and killed himself eight years later. Cavallo received an honorary doctorate from Flinders University in Adelaide in 2022, in recognition of “his exceptional contributions as a role model in elite men’s sport and as a champion for equality”. In 2024, he announced his engagement to his boyfriend Leighton Morrell. He and Morrell currently live in England, where he plays for the English National League team Peterborough Sports.