Carles Puyol apologises for ‘clumsy joke’ after Iker Casillas appeared to come out as gay

Carles Puyol has apologised to the LGBTQ+ community for a ‘clumsy joke’ after Iker Casillas appeared to come out as gay in a now deleted tweet.

‘I hope you respect me, I’m gay,’ former Real Madrid goalkeeper Casillas announced to his 10m followers, before claiming that his account was hacked.

Ex-Barcelona captain Puyol, Casillas’ former Spain international team-mate, responded to the coming out tweet almost immediately and implied 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.

World Cup winner Casillas, who also won three Champions League titles and two European Championships, has since said that it was not him who posted the message, posting on Twitter: ‘Hacked account. Luckily everything in order.

‘Apologies to all my followers. And of course, more apologies to the LGBT community.’

Puyol has now also apologised, posting: ‘I have made a mistake. Sorry for a clumsy joke with no bad intentions and totally out of place.

<p lang=«es» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«es»>Me he equivocado. Perdón por una broma torpe sin ninguna mala intención y absolutamente fuera de lugar. Entiendo que puede haber herido sensibilidades. Todo mi respeto y apoyo a la comunidad LGTBIQA+

‘I understand that it may have hurt sensitivities. All my respect and support for the [LGBTQ+] community.’

Homophobia continues to be a massive problem in the men’s game around the world, and there have been a lack of openly gay footballers as a result.

There is currently just one openly gay male footballer across