A gay soccer star slammed Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol for their 'beyond disrespectful' joke about coming out of the closet

• Spanish soccer stars Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol joked about coming out of the closet on social media.
• The tweets have been deleted, with Casillas claiming he was hacked and Puyol apologizing for the "stupid joke."
• Adelaide United's Josh Cavallo, who is gay, called the legends' behavior "beyond disrespectful."

There's a stunning lack of LGBTQ+ representation in professional men's sports.

But, for a brief moment, it appeared as though a pair of Spanish soccer legends had altered the entire landscape.

Iker Casillas — a World Cup champion and star goalkeeper — set social media ablaze Sunday when a tweet in his native tongue that read "I hope I'll be respected: I'm gay" appeared on his official Twitter account. His teammate from the World Cup-winning 2010 Spanish national team replied shortly thereafter, also in Spanish, that "it's time to tell them about us." He even added a heart and kissing face emoji for good measure.

—XI football (@XIfutball_) October 9, 2022

Later in the day, the original tweet disappeared from Casillas' account. Amidst reporting from the Spanish press that both players had shared the coming out posts "ironically" in an attempt to dissuade speculation about his personal life, Casillas posted that his account had been "hacked" and offered "apologies to the LGBT community."

Puyol also deleted his reply and admitted that he "made a mistake" by posting the "stupid joke."

The tweets undoubtedly caused harm to the LGBTQ+ community, which has long faced discrimination and ridicule in professional men's sports. Closeted players may hesitate to come out themselves after watching Casillas and Puyol seemingly mock queer identities and stir up hatred among their tens of millions of followers.

This reality isn't lost on Josh Cavallo, an Adelaide United left back and center midfielder who came out in October 2021.

"It's a difficult journey that any LGBTQ+ ppl have to go through," Cavallo wrote on Twitter Sunday. "To see my role models and legends of the game make fun out of coming out and my community is beyond disrespectful."

—Josh Cavallo (@JoshuaCavallo) October 9, 2022

Backlash across the world has been fierce, with Casillas losing nearly three million followers in the days after deleting the post and claiming he had been hacked. Still, it remains unclear whether he and Puyols will face lasting repercussions for their actions, especially considering they've since moved on from their playing days.