There’s nothing funny about pretending to come out, Casillas and Puyol

‘Espero que me respeten: soy gay.’

In English – ‘I hope I’ll be respected, I’m gay.’

This tweet, from legendary Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas, sent social media into a frenzy on Sunday afternoon. 

I’d just sat down to tune into the day’s Premier League matches when the post appeared at the top of my timeline. 

My initial feeling was shock, followed by pessimism. Casillas felt like ‘too big’ a name to come out. And that’s not to say it couldn’t be true, because of course it could. 

My next thought was considering whether it was part of a PR campaign’ – or that he’d fallen victim to a prank.

I immediately shared the tweet to a group chat that I’m a part of with other LGBTQ+ members of the sports media community and the messages began flying, though a Spanish member of the group suggested we take it with a pinch of salt.

In that initial flurry, we had no idea of Casillas had disgustingly used the notion of being gay as a punchline – or as he says, had been hacked. 

Had we really just seen one of the world’s most decorated footballers, a three-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid, so nonchalantly reveal his sexuality? 

I was disgusted and disheartened that a 41-year-old and a 44-year-old were making jokes about sexuality

We wondered whether all the hard work we strived towards, in terms of helping to create that environment for professional athletes to be their authentic selves, had come to this landmark moment; whether this really was the ground-breaking day we had hoped for.

Social media was ablaze. There was shock. There was pride. 

There was also a general feeling that it was a genuine and heartfelt, simple way to come out.

He wouldn’t be the first. 

Thomas Hitzlsperger came out after retirement. As did Robbie Rogers. It