EXCLUSIVE: Thomas Hitzlsperger, still the only Premier League player to be openly gay, on the battles football still has to face up to

There is a straight line, no pun intended, between Thomas Hitzlsperger coming out as gay in 2014 and the former Germany midfielder becoming a restauranteur in central London in March this year.

He now owns a Soho institution, L’Escargot, the oldest French restaurant in the capital, occupy-ing four storeys of a Georgian townhouse on Greek Street. Snails remain a fixture on the menu, as they have been since Frenchman Georges Gaudin opened for business in 1896 and became the first person to sell them in England.

Hitzlsperger, 41, first visited in late 2014 when invited to England to take part in that year’s Rain-bow Laces campaign; he’d been asked having come out that January.

‘I’ve always liked London but hadn’t been here before,’ he says, speaking about his new venture for the first time as we talk in the library bar at the top of the building. ‘For all sorts of reasons it was a really good evening. The atmosphere was good, the food, the service, the company. My best mate from back home was with me. There was a sense of history about the place.’

He became a regular customer, as he splits his time largely between Munich and London. He got to know the people who owned it, and as it faced the post-Covid troubles of many restaurants, was offered the chance to invest last year.

‘It wasn’t something I’d ever considered,’ he says. ‘But I looked at the numbers, spoke to people about the risks associated with restaurants, and decided to take this chance.’

L’Escargot was closed for refurbishment between January and May and the menu was tweaked but still includes the staple of French classics from lobster bisque and pâté en croûte ‘Maison’ to Tournedos Rossini and soufflé.

‘What mattered to me was this was London, a place I love, and the