Jakub Jankto, a Czech worldwide footballer who has come out as homosexual, is an entrepreneur operating a number of companies who fortunately admits to being “a workaholic.”
Besides playing top-tier football, the 27-year-old left-winger owns a gaming team and a mobile game project and invests in real estate. He also ran a bar in Prague.
“I’m a workaholic. I don’t like people telling me they don’t work at weekends. If they don’t, they can go,” he mentioned in a uncommon newspaper interview in October, 2021.
Jankto, who’s on mortgage at Sparta Prague from La Liga aspect Getafe, revealed he was homosexual in an emotional video on social networks on Monday.
“I’m gay and I not need to cover myself,” Jankto said in English.
“Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom, without fears, without prejudice, without violence, (but) with love,” he added.
Jankto is one in all a handful {of professional} footballers who’ve publicly come out as homosexual whereas taking part in, and the primary energetic worldwide participant to achieve this.
The announcement got here two years after he break up along with his girlfriend with whom he has a three-year-old son, David.
Jankto got here via the youth system at Slavia Prague however by no means actually bought the possibility to show himself.
He moved to Italy aged 18 to play for Udinese in Serie A however was shortly loaned to second-tier aspect Ascoli for a 12 months.
“I used to be used to getting assist from my mother and father and all of a sudden I used to be alone for every thing,” Jankto said.
“So it was a bit of a shock, the first two months were really tough.”
‘Happy to be here’
Upon his return to Udinese, he scored his first Serie A objective in a 2-1 loss to Juventus in October 2016.
“I’ll always remember that, it was the primary top-flight objective, furthermore in Serie A, at a packed Juventus stadium and in opposition to (Gianluigi) Buffon on high of that,” beamed Jankto.
He moved from Udinese to Sampdoria in 2018, first on loan and then permanently, staying for three years.
In total, Jankto scored 17 goals in 155 Serie A games before moving to Getafe on a two-year deal in 2021.
“Getafe is a family club. Everything works fine here and I’m happy to be here,” Jankto mentioned.
But he solely managed 13 video games for the Madrid aspect which narrowly escaped relegation, whereas Jankto, grappling with accidents, was moved to the left aspect of the again 4 to his dismay.
‘Score against Buffon’
Last summer season, Jankto was provided an escape route by Slavia’s arch-rivals Sparta Prague, signing a one-year mortgage deal which he’s hoping to flip right into a everlasting one.
“I merely needed to return house. It is basically robust to spend eight years overseas,” he said.
Jankto made an immediate impact on the international scene scoring on his debut in a 3-0 win over Lithuania in 2017 — he has scored four goals in 45 appearances for his country to date — and was part of the squad that reached the Euro 2020 quarter-finals.
Outside of football Jankto says he is especially energised by the gaming sphere.
He has founded the Sampi esports team and built a gaming house near Prague for his players.
He has also invested in the Live Penalty project offering a mobile game in which players shoot penalties at real-life goalkeepers.
“I see the biggest potential in connecting virtual reality with the real world. I have enjoyed this since I was ten,” Jankto says about Live Penalty.
“It’s a Czech app that enables you to mingle with well-known gamers and golf equipment. And rating in opposition to Buffon.”
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