Joshua JOHN CAVALLO, born on this date, is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a left back and central midfielder for A-League Men club Adelaide United. Cavallo has represented the Australian under-20 national team. Though he was initially more interested in tennis, at the urging of his brother he started playing football (soccer).

He was scouted by a national program at the age of 15, and later offered a scholarship by Melbourne Victory. He represented both Melbourne Victory FC Youth and Melbourne City FC Youth, in Melbourne, Victoria.

On 15 April 2019, Melbourne City announced that Cavallo would leave the club at the expiration of his contract at the end of the 2018–19 season.

In June 2019, new A-League side Western United, representing western Melbourne suburbs and western Victorian regional towns, announced that Cavallo would join the club ahead of its inaugural season. He made his debut in January 2020 in a 3–2 loss at his previous club. 

Cavallo said that he knew he was gay from the age of 16, but was confused and too scared to talk about it. He worried that it would affect his career if his sexuality became public. He said that while he loved playing football, and wore a “mask” as a player, appearing happy and bubbly, off the pitch he felt very unhappy, and became depressed. He hid his sexuality from everyone, including his family. Eventually it became bigger than football.

He came out in October 2021. At the time, there were no other openly gay male footballers playing professional top-flight football. He said in a statement, “I hope that in sharing who I am, I can show others who identify as LGBTQ+ that they are welcome in the football community”. Cavallo said he had “never smiled so much in my life” and had “the best night’s sleep” after his announcement. He was fully and explicitly supported by Adelaide United management and fellow players. The announcement was widely reported in the international press, and Cavallo received messages of support from many football players, including Gerard Piqué, Marcus Rashford, Antoine Griezmann, Jordan Henderson, Gary Lineker, and Lionel Messi, as well as fans, strangers, and celebrities such as Lil Nas X and Ellen DeGeneres.

Cavallo was the first high-profile player to come out during their career since English footballer Justin Fashanu made a similar announcement in 1990. Fashanu faced widespread homophobia after the announcement, and committed suicide eight years later. In May 2022 English footballer Jake Daniels came out, aged 17, becoming the UK’s only male professional footballer to be publicly out at the time, and the first since Fashanu. He cited Cavallo among those who had helped him to come out.

In March 2024, Cavallo proposed to his partner Leighton Morrell, an electrician, on the pitch at Adelaide United’s Coopers Stadium, Adelaide United’s home ground. He posted three photos on Instagram, one of which showed his partner wearing an engagement ring, and thanked Adelaide United for their support and encouragement to live his life authentically.

He won Adelaide United’s Rising Star award for the 2020/2021 season. In 2022, Cavallo received an honorary doctorate  from Flinders University in Adelaide, in recogition of “his exceptional contributions as a role model in elite men’s sport and as a champion for equality”. Cavallo was nominated as 2023 SA Young Australian of the Year.