Thomas Berling is a retired Norwegian football defender. His retirement from football sparked media attention.

He hails from Drevja

Drevja

Drevja is a former municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The Geographical Coordinates for this place is: .Drevja was separated from Vefsn as a municipality of its own July 1, 1927. It was merged with Vefsn again January 1, 1962....

. He played for Nardo FK, and joined Lyn ahead of the 1999 season. He played four games in the second highest Norwegian league, and also played for the u-19 national team.

In 2000 he disappeared from professional football. It later surfaced that he had come out

Coming out

Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....

 as homosexual, and that he quit football as a result of what he described as widespread homophobia

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

 in the football community. In 2001 he briefly came out of retirement, playing for lower league Drøbak/Frogn IF.

Berling's case was cited several times in the upcoming years, as the connection between homophobia and sport was discussed in the national media now and then.