The only footballer to come out publicly as gay, Josh Carvallo, has slammed Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol for tweets believed to be a joke.
On Sunday (today), the former Real Madrid and Spain goalkeeper caused a stir on social media when he came out as gay.
He wrote: “I hope you respect me: I am gay.” Casillas also used the hashtag felizdomingo, which means happy Sunday in Spanish.
In response, Casillas’ former Spain team-mate Puyol responded and tweeted: “It’s time to tell our story, Iker.”
The post by Casillas was subsequently deleted, but received a very negative reaction. Carvallo, who became the first openly gay professional footballer, hit out at the duo and called the actions “disappointing and “beyond disrespectful” given their position in the game.
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“@IkerCasillas and @Carles5puyol joking and making fun of you, it’s disappointing. It is a difficult journey that every LGBTQ+ must go through. To see models like myself and legends of the game mocked for coming out with those posts is beyond disrespectful,” he wrote.
Casillas, who captained Spain at the 2010 World Cup, was married to journalist Sara Carbonero for five years before the couple announced their separation in March last year.
It was reported that the tweet from the 39-year-old, who retired due to a heart problem, may have been in retaliation to rumors that he was dating Alejandra Onieva, the former sister-in-law of Spanish presenter Tamara Falco.
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However, this story does not appear to be true as Casillas took to Twitter to issue a statement, claiming that his account on the social network had been hacked and apologized to his followers and more importantly, the LGBT community.
Carvallo came out in October, posting a statement saying: “I’m a footballer and I’m gay. All I want to do is play football and be treated equally.”
Before going public, the 22-year-old told his team-mates in an emotional and powerful speech and was greeted by widespread support.
