Pioneering English footballer Justin Fashanu has been inducted into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame – posthumously celebrating the legacy of England's first openly gay professional player.

The talented striker – who played at clubs including Norwich and Nottingham Forest – was also Britain's first £1 million black footballer and won the BBC's Goal of the Season award for his incredible volley against Liverpool in February 1980.

In 1990, Fashanu became the first male English professional to come out as gay while still playing – and remarkably no top-level player has followed in his footsteps since. Fashanu's induction celebrates the impression his bravery left on football, and comes on what would have been his 59th birthday. Fashanu tragically took his own life in 1998.

Justin Fashanu's niece, Amal, accepted the Hall of Fame award on his behalf at the National Football Museum in Manchester, which is timed to coincide with this year's LGBT History Month:

"He's here now [in the Hall of Fame], you guys have acknowledged him, we all respect him, he's been given the position he deserves, and for me, that's all I've ever wanted for Justin...

I don't understand, even today, how Justin did it - he's one of the bravest men I've ever come across. You've got a black man who is gay and religious, all in one, and you can add it all up and it just sounds like a recipe for disaster because it was a very different time.

The fact that Justin just got up and said 'this is who I am, I'm going to respect myself and get others to respect me for who I am', that is one of the most impressive things. And for him, as my uncle, I couldn't think of anything more honourable and I look up to it every day."

In other LGBTQI+ football news, adidas have officially partnered with the world’s most successful LGBTQI+ football club, Stonewall FC.