Italy captain Ciro Immobile is the guest judge for the Drag Race Italia show.

Club Lazio forward Ciro Immobile joined his wife, Jessica Melena, in the werk room studio to chat with the contestants of the third season of the show "Drag Race" and express a "message of freedom".

This has become an event for Italian soccer as the 33-year-old Immobile is the captain of the Italian national team and one of the most scoring players in Serie A history.

He, along with his wife, fashionista and Influencer Jessica Melena, accepted an invitation to the third season of Drag Race Italia and became a judge in the Red Passion Week category.

The episode aired Friday on MTV Italia and on Paramount+.

"Drag Race Italia" is the eighth international version of the show and is hosted by Priscilla, one of Italy's most famous queens.

"The Playful Ones. 'Flirting with Immobile makes the show even more entertaining.

Hiring such a big name from the world of soccer is a real accomplishment for the show.

Immobile and Melena's visit to the "werk room" to meet the queens after their fashion outings has gotten the drag family excited.

"What a handsome man! Your presence here is very important to us," Silvana della Magliani told Immobile.

"The whole drag family thanks you," says Melissa Bianchini.

"Your support and presence means a lot because our mission is to move the world of drag forward.

A few weeks ago, Bianchini and the other contestants on the show were invited to attend a match between Inter and Bologna.

Paramount+ is the sponsor of Inter's uniforms, and photos of the queens in full''Drag-obliques watching the game from the side of the pitch have gone viral on social media.

The 'Drag Race' show is gaining attention in soccer at a time when LGBT rights in Italy are under threat from the right-wing government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy party.

This year, city councils have been ordered to stop listing same-sex couples on birth certificates.

Then in July, an expansion of the law on surrogacy, which was already illegal in Italy, was approved, threatening to criminalize those who travel abroad to have children through a surrogate.

The Italian Senate still has to approve the bill, but given that the Brothers of Italy control''majority of seats, approval is expected.

In contrast to almost all other major Western European countries, Italy does not have legislation on equal rights in marriage, and the prospect of it changing in the near future seems highly unrealistic.

Civil partnerships have been allowed since 2016.

Till then, recent opinion polls from the Pew Research Center show that 74% of Italian adults support same-sex marriage, which is even higher than in the UK, where equal marriage law was passed more than a decade ago.

In such a context, Immobile's participation in the "Drag Race" show takes on additional symbolic meaning.

Discussing the invitation he and Melena received, Immobile tells the queens, "We're glad that you''chose us to send this message of freedom'.

La Prada responds to Immobile: 'This message must also continue on the pitch and in the locker room'.

There has been news recently of the difficulties faced by gay and bisexual soccer players in the hypermasculine culture of Italian men's soccer, linked to the betting scandal that has engulfed the game.

Fabrizio Corona, a prominent blogger, claims to have uncovered the names of several players allegedly involved in illegal gambling and hinted that there are soon-to-be "scoops" regarding hidden stars.

He has already revealed one World Cup-winning player who has never spoken publicly about his sexuality.

The time'. 'Visiting queens for the Inter vs Bologna match Paramount+ published a tweet that read: 'Football has all kinds of colors and we wanted to represent them by bringing a very special flag to the stadium - the flag of the '\''Drag Race Italia'\''\''.

One report in the Corriere della Sera newspaper said that fans gathered in droves with the queens to take selfies and photos with them.

Literally all the 74,000 fans showed their support for the Bologna players as they took to the pitch.

Amy Crania, one of the queens, summed it up: "We have proved our mettle by being here and doing what we do. "

Hopefully, the solidarity shown by Immobile will also allow all those suffering in Italian men's soccer to be themselves.