Tony Powell: ‘My footballer brother hid his sexuality for years’

Denise said Tony then became a motel manager until the 2000s in Los Angeles, before it was being converted into temporary housing for people who were homeless.

About three years ago US documentary-makers Ramiel Petros and Nick Freeman visited the motel to make a film about its conversion, and recorded Tony.

From there, Ramiel said, they saw a “much bigger story” about about his disappearance from the public eye.

Denise said: “It’s about Tony as a footballer and being gay – which even to this day – is not accepted in the football world.

“He went from being a very successful professional footballer. He lost everything, he walked away from his own family, not just his wife.

“It’s a story of how he moved away and chose a different life to lead.

“Even to this day he’s very guarded about what’s gone in his life, we’ve found out very little.”