Former Real Madrid and Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas faced backlash on social media, apologising to the LGBTQ+ community, as he claimed his official Twitter account had been hacked to post a coming out message.
A post on his Twitter page earlier on Sunday, October 9, read: “I hope you respect me – I’m gay.” The message quickly gained traction on social media, racking up well over 100,000 likes before being deleted. Among the thousands of replies was one from the verified account of Casillas’ former Spain team-mate and Barcelona defender Carles Puyol, which read: “It’s time to tell our story, Iker.”
Casillas, who made over 500 appearances for Real and led Spain to their first World Cup triumph in 2010, later tweeted: “Hacked account. Luckily everything in order. Apologies to all my followers. And of course, more apologies to the LGBT community.” Puyol also later apologised for what he called a “clumsy joke” but the tweets were met with widespread criticism.
