On Sunday afternoon, the Spaniard - who won the World Cup and three Champions League titles - announced to his 10 million followers on Twitter that he had come out as gay, writing: 'I hope you respect me. Yes, I'm gay.'
Former Barcelona captain Puyol almost immediately responded to his compatriot's tweet, implying they were in a secret relationship, saying: 'It's time to tell our story, Iker.'
The tweets inevitably caused a storm - both in terms of positive messages to the former goalkeeper and, sadly, a flurry of homophobic reactions - and Casillas would have been the most high-profile footballer to come out as gay.
But it quickly became clear that things were not as they seemed, with both Casillas and Puyol deleting their tweets within hours as the news continued to make headlines around the world.
According to Spanish newspaper AS, the tweets were meant to be 'sarcastic' and were in response to several recent media articles gossiping about Casillas' love life, including the 41-year-old's recent engagement to Spanish actress Alejandra Oniva. wash
@IkerCasillas and @Carles5puyol joking and making fun out of coming out in football is disappointing. 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 pic.twitter.com/Yp88aQyyTV
— Josh Cavallo (@JoshuaCavallo) October 9, 2022
Casillas has since tweeted claiming to have been hacked: 'Account hacked. Luckily, everything is fine. Apologies to all my followers and of course apologies to the LGBT community.' Puyol still claims he was hacked as well.
However, this excuse was not liked by many, and Casillas and Puyol's decision to make fun of it is now widely criticized – not least because of the homophobic taunts it sparked.
Josh Cavallo, who became the world's first openly gay male professional player when he revealed his sexuality just a year earlier, led the criticism, saying he felt the two football icons were joking about coming out in this way to come Manner.
The Australian footballer tweeted, “Disappointing to mock Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol and come out in football as it became clear that the tweets were not honest.
"It's a difficult journey that any LGBTQ people have to go through. To see my role models and sports legends come out and make fun of me and my community is beyond insulting.
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