The first transgender woman in football’s Premier League has been “totally accepted” by players and fans after decades of feeling trapped in the wrong body.
Sophie Cook, 48, feared a backlash as she started a new season as herself – after finishing the last season as Steve.
As well as taking female hormones, the 48-year-old lost five stone and got hair extensions.
Ms Cook, a Premier League football photographer for AFC Bournemouth, had known she was a woman since she was a child.
With Bournemouth club manager Eddie Howe and chairman Jeff Mostyn, Ms Cook broke the news to her team.
The last time she had seen the players was at the parade to celebrate promotion the previous season.
She said: “Living with the burden any longer would have killed me, so it was time to be true to myself. I couldn’t keep living in the shadows.
“I had to tell the guys.
“I was living in Brighton and had hair extensions. It wasn’t as if I could go back to Bournemouth, take my wig off and pretend I was still Steve. I was Sophie.
“The assistant manager called the players together and said: ‘You’ll probably notice our photographer has changed a little from last season, lost a bit of weight, and grown her hair out a bit. I’d like you all to meet Sophie.’
“I had no idea how they would react but suddenly the captain started clapping and the rest of the boys joined in.
Sophie to Bournemouth’s players and they applauded her
“I haven’t looked back. It feels amazing.”
Ms Cook, who has been a photographer with Bournemouth since 2012, was working at an away game in Leeds in January last year when “a switch suddenly went” and she realised she could no longer live as a man.
She began questioning her identity when she was a young child and said she insisted children call her Jenny on a family holiday when she was just seven
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| Sophie as a Man (steve) |
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