Spanish goalkeeper and World Cup champion Iker Casillas, in a now deleted tweet, jokingly claimed he was gay and that he hoped he would be respected. His teammate from the World Cup winning Spanish national team Carles Puyol responded to the tweet soon after, and said, “it's time to tell them about us” along with a number of heart and kissing emojis.

Both the players have been severely criticized for ridiculing the LGBTQ+ community, who have been facing discrimination in professional men’s sports for several years now. Casillas deleted his tweet and later claimed that his account had been hacked. He also apologized to the queer community. Meanwhile, Puyol deleted his reply as well and admitted that he made a mistake by posting the ‘stupid joke.’

The incident did not go down well with a number of footballers. Adelaide United midfielder Josh Cavallo, who came out as gay in October last year, said, “It’s 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.” Casillas has lost nearly 3 million followers since posting and deleting the tweet.