Iker Casillias Under Fire For False Coming Out Post, Claimed His Twitter Got Hacked

Retired professional footballer Iker Casillias, who was a goalkeeper for Real Madrid for most of his career, has been criticized for a Tweet he sent out on Sunday.

The short and now-deleted Tweet, originally written in Spanish, said “I hope I’ll be respected: I’m gay.”

Casillias had written this tweet in an apparent response to rumors that he was seen with multiple women in the wake of his recent divorce. While it must be frustrating to be the subject of tabloid rumors, this is a gross way to respond to that situation.

Former Barcelona captain Carles Puyol also responded to the Tweet saying, “The time has come to tell our story, Iker,” in what seemed to be a bad attempt at a joke.

He later tweeted, “I apologize for a clumsy joke that wasn’t malicious at all but was totally out of order.”

Casillias then attempted damage control with the below tweet, which says when translated, “Hacked account. Luckily everything in order. Apologies to all my followers. And of course, more apologies to the LGBT community.”