Esther González, one of women's soccer biggest stars and a married lesbian athlete, has signed with Saudi Arabia's Al-Qadsiah football club, and in the days since, photos of her wife and infant child have quietly vanished from her social media.
González, 33, was a 2025 NWSL MVP finalist and Gotham's top scorer before her club released her from the final year of her contract this summer. A month later came the announcement that stunned queer soccer fans: she was headed to Saudi Arabia, a country with no codified legal system but whose courts routinely punish same-sex relationships and gender nonconformity, according to Human Dignity Trust.
Spanish outlet El Mundo first reported that González's public photos with her wife and child had disappeared following the move. A review of her account found most remaining images of the couple buried deep inside multi-photo carousels rather than featured as the visible cover slide, a subtle but telling shift for an athlete who had previously posted openly, including hospital photos when the couple welcomed their child in January.
A Career-Defining Move, Under a Different Flag
The signing is a coup for Al-Qadsiah and the Saudi Women's Premier League, still a young competition trying to attract international talent. González isn't just any player: she won the Golden Boot at the 2025 UEFA Women's European Championship and helped Spain lift the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. Landing a player of that caliber is a statement of ambition for Saudi women's football.
What Queer Fans Are Saying
Reaction from LGBTQ+ soccer fans has been pointed, with many noting the contradiction of an openly gay athlete relocating to, and apparently going quiet in, a country where queer people risk arrest.
as a gay saudi woman I don't even know how to feel about esther gonzález playing in the saudi league because its just so hypocritical to pretend that an openly gay woman who's not white would be able to get away with this :/ on the other hand I want this league to get better
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Others have framed the move as a matter of privilege: González's wealth and international stature afford her protections that ordinary queer Saudis simply don't have.
Worth Considering
Gulf states have long asked visiting LGBTQ+ people to keep their identities out of sight rather than granting them real protection. Qatar took the same approach during the 2022 World Cup, barring rainbow flags and telling fans not to display affection publicly. What's different here is permanence: González isn't passing through for a tournament, she's relocating her career and, it appears, editing her public identity to match.
Out athletes competing briefly for restrictive countries is one thing. A married lesbian moving her life and livelihood into one, while apparently retreating from public view, is a different and more unsettling proposition. It raises real questions about what leagues like the Saudi Women's Premier League are actually offering the queer players they recruit, and what those players are being asked to give up in return. them. reached out to González's representatives for comment and has not yet received a response.
Cover photo: Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
