Former Arsenal and Germany forward Lukas Podolski is considering legal action after conservative website Breitbart published his photo in an article about illegal immigration.
The online article was headlined “Spanish Police Crack Gang Moving Migrants on Jet-Skis”, with a picture showing Podolski on a jet ski which had been taken at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil where the German team were relaxing during a day off.
Will somebody tell Steve Bannon and the other geniuses at @BreitbartNews that the guy on the picture is German soccer star Lukas Podolski pic.twitter.com/zWqoQDBg3s
— Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) August 20, 2017
Although Breitbart subsequently amended the article, removing the photograph of Podolski and published an apology in an editor’s note at the bottom of the page, the image was nevertheless spread widely across social media.
Podolski left Arsenal in January 2015 to join Italian club Internazionale on loan, before then moving to Galatasaray in Turkey.
The 32-year-old World Cup winner made his final international appearance for Germany in March against England, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory in Dortmund, and now plays for Japanese side Vissel Kobe.
Podolski’s manager Nassim Touihri told German newspaper Bild the issue with the Breitbart article was “a mess”.
Touihri said: “Lukas distances himself from it and won’t let himself be exploited. Our lawyer is already involved.”
Breitbart had issued an apology when the article was updated, this time with a different picture.
“A previous version of this story included an image of Lukas Podolski on a jet ski. This image appeared as an illustration of a person on a jet ski. Breitbart London wishes to apologise to Mr Podolski,” the editor’s note read.
“There is no evidence Mr Podolski is either a migrant gang member, nor being human trafficked. We wish Mr Podolski well in his recently announced international retirement.”