Iker Casillas has claimed his Twitter account was hacked after the former goalkeeper appeared to come out as gay.
The Real Madrid and Spain legend put out a short post on the social media platform on Sunday afternoon, but soon deleted it.
It read: “I hope you respect me: I’m gay.”
Barcelona legend Carlos Puyol then replied to the tweet with the message: “The time has come to tell our story, Iker.”
However, Spanish publication AS claimed Casillas’ post was written as a joke to stop the tabloids from writing and spreading rumours about his personality
The tweet was live for more than an hour before it was then deleted, with the retired star later saying his account had been hacked.
Puyol also deleted his post shortly afterwards.
He wrote: “Hacked account. Luckily everything in order. Apologies to all my followers. And of course, more apologies to the LGBT community.”