‘Beyond disrespectful’ – Openly gay footballer Josh Cavallo slams Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol

Openly gay footballer Josh Cavallo has led the criticism of Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol after the former Real Madrid goalkeeper claimed he was gay in a now deleted tweet.

On Sunday afternoon, the Spaniard – who won the World Cup and three Champions League titles – announced to his 10million followers on Twitter that he had come out as gay, writing: ‘I hope you respect me, I’m gay.’

Former Barcelona captain Puyol responded to his compatriot’s tweet almost immediately, implying they were in a secret relationship, saying: ‘It’s time to tell our story, Iker.’

The tweets inevitably caused a storm – both in terms of positive messages to the former goalkeeper and, unfortunately, a swell of homophobic responses – and Casillas would have been the most high-profile footballer to come out as gay.

But it quickly became apparent that things were not all they seemed, with both Casillas and Puyol deleting their tweets within the hour as the news was still making headlines around the world.

According to Spanish newspaper AS, the tweets were meant ‘sarcastically’ and were in response to a number of recent articles in the media gossiping about Casillas’ love life, with the 41-year-old recently linked to Spanish actress Alejandra Onieva.

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>@IkerCasillas and @Carles5puyol joking and making fun out of coming out in football is disappointing. Itâs a difficult journey that any LGBTQ+ ppl have to go through. To see my role models and legends of the game make fun out of coming out and my community is beyond disrespectful pic.twitter.com/Yp88aQyyTV

Casillas has since claimed that he was hacked, tweeting: ‘Hacked account. Luckily everything is in order. Apologies to all my followers and of course, more apologies to