Justin Fashanu statue campaign

A campaign has been launched to help raise £150,000 for a statue in tribute to Justin Fashanu.

In 1990, former Norwich striker Fashanu became the first male professional to come out as gay while still playing. He took his own life in 1998, aged 37.

LGBTQ+ fans group Proud Canaries are raising funds to pay for the sculpture which will be created by Taslim Martin and is set to depict Fashanu's raised finger celebration after scoring against Liverpool in February 1980.

"The idea has been kicking around for a few years, it was paused during the pandemic. But now people have really come together," Professor Andrew Reynolds from the Justin Fashanu statue campaign told Sky Sports News.

"What we are trying to do is raise £150,000 to install the statue of Justin, which means so much to so many people. We have a fabulous artist, one of the leading sculptors in Britain, Taslim Martin, who is going to be creating the statue for us.

"We are going to have a little community space, a little community garden around the statue for people to stop and even sit on their way to the ground.

"We've been blessed with a huge amount of public support for the campaign already."

The statue will be situated in a memorial garden on the banks of the River Wensum along the approach to Norwich's Carrow Road stadium.

Actor and Norwich fan Stephen Fry is supporting the campaign.