August 03 2025, 08:15 
Spain’s only out soccer player is officially off the market!
In recent weeks, UD San Sebastián de los Reyes goalie Alberto Lejárraga and husband Ruben Fernandez have been sharing photos from their fabulous late-June wedding on Spain’s Costa del Sol.
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On July 3, the newlyweds first shared a video slideshow on Instagram of pics from their big day taken by photographer Fran Oritz. Then on July 15, Lejárraga shared a post featuring more photos showing himself with his groomsmen, Fernandez with his bridesmaids, and the happy couple walking down the aisle at wedding venue Hacienda las Fuentes.
“Almost 3 weeks from these moments, without a doubt the best of our lives!” Lejárraga wrote in the post’s caption, adding that he and Fernandez shared the images “To thank the people who joined us that day. To thank all of you who took the time to congratulate us. To thank you, in short, to those who are glad that we could live such a great day!”
Meanwhile, Fernandez, an actor and musician, shared his own wedding pics in a post captioned with a bevy of thank-yous to friends and family, including those of his new husband.
Fernandez also posted a carousel of photos of the couple getting down with their guests and wedding party at their raucous wedding reception. Noting that he’d dreamed of a party like one in a memorable episode of Spanish sitcom Paquita Salas, Fernandez wrote that he felt he’d made that dream a reality at his and Lejárraga’s reception, “celebrating love after an intense day, filled with emotions and tears of happiness.”
According to LGBTQ Nation sibling site Outsports, Lejárraga is likely the first out male pro or semi-pro player to marry his same-sex partner while still active in soccer.
The semi-pro footballer came out publicly in April 2023, posting a photo of himself and Fernandez kissing on X (then known as Twitter). The post went viral and drew significant media attention in Spain, where, as Outsports notes, an out male player had, at the time, never played in a men’s pro soccer match.
Muchas gracias por estar siempre a mi lado, en las buenas y en las no tan buenas! Esta vez nos tocó vivir lo bonito de esto! GRACIAS
— Alberto Lejárraga (@alberto_leja) April 25, 2023
The following month, Lejárraga released a statement responding to the media attention, explaining that he hadn’t intended to come out as gay with the photo. But, he said, he was “grateful” that the photo “conveyed a message of diversity, naturalness, closeness, and the utmost sensitivity.”
By the end of that year, however, Lejárraga and Fernandez were appearing together in a segment on Spanish public TV broadcaster RTVE, in which he said he had no regrets about coming out.
“I feel like it wouldn’t be fair to myself, and especially to my partner, to continue hiding and doing things like not mentioning him or pretending he’s not there,” he said. “I wanted to take the step.”
As Outsports notes, Lejárraga also recently shared his experience as a gay athlete in the TV documentary The Courage to be Visible.
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