ATLETICO Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann sent social media into a spin and was forced to issue an apology after a gaffe was slammed as “racist”.

The Frenchman posted a photo of himself in full blackface, dressing up as a Harlem Globetrotter for a party.

He was quickly condemned, with Deadspin’s Lauren Theisen labelling it as “egregiously racist.”

After more than an hour of the post remaining live, and Griezmann telling fans to “calm down ... it was a tribute”, the Manchester United and Barcelona target deleted the picture and apologised.

But Griezmann isn’t the only footballer to be involved in social media gaffes — with some scandalous and hilarious mistakes occurring on Twitter and Instagram.

Here are some of the worst, and most random social media gaffes from famous footballers …

CHELSEA STAR IN RACISM SCANDAL

Griezmann isn’t the only footballer to be involved in a racism scandal this year.

Back in July, Chelsea’s Kenedy made front page news in China for a series of Instagram posts that included the words “F*** China” and mocking a sleeping Chinese security guard.

WAYNE ROONEY BEING WAYNE ROONEY

Wayne Rooney circa-2011 was a blast on Twitter.

Before his account became tightly managed, and while the Everton star was still learning the social media ropes, he was constantly going viral for all the wrong reasons.

From repeatedly writing “mate” …

… to telling Britain’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan to “shut up” …

… to asking Rio Ferdinand if he wanted a lift …

... to the best one of all time: Wayne Rooney threatening to knock out Wayne Rooney.

RONALDO’S CREEPY UNDERWEAR TWEET

Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was forced to delete a tweet that was rather creepy.

After running a social media campaign for his CR7 Boys Underwear brand, Ronaldo thanked fans for sending in all their photos, talking about how much he loved going through them.

People immediately jumped to conclusions – did Ronaldo spend his afternoon checking out boys in their underwear?!

CR7 was quick to clarify, thankfully.

MARK NOBLE’S ‘SOUTH KOREAN’ FAN

West Ham skipper Mark Noble took a selfie with a fan holding his jersey outside the training ground. It was harmless enough, particularly when Noble tweeted that the fan had come all the way from China.

That was until the fan, Ling Wann, replied “I’m South Korean, not Chinese.”

SUPER MARIO’S MEME FAIL

Mario Balotelli was attempting to speak out against racism by Instagramming a meme with an image that stated “Don’t be racist!”

The problem? The image, of Super Mario – Balotelli’s nickname – also stated that the cartoon “jumps like a black man” and “grabs coins like a Jew”.

JUVE STAR ARGUES WITH 12-YEAR-OLD

Just last week, Juventus’ Stefano Sturaro was forced to apologise for a brutal takedown of a 12-year-old winding him up on Instagram.

After being “insulted” by the kid, Sturaro replied and wrote: “Sit down or I’ll embarrass you to such a degree that you’ll cry for three days.

“Go play with your Pokemon and stop bothering me, you r****d. Go cry to your mother, you damn child. Actually, I am at home with your mother.”

He was forced to delete the post and apologise.

ANICHEBE’S CUT AND PASTE JOB

Footballers tend to post silly things on social media, as demonstrated by all of the above gaffes.

So former Sunderland and Everton striker Victor Anichebe showed that more frequently, athletes are turning to their advisors to write tweets for them. The problem comes when the athlete simply cut, pastes and posts the entire message, rather than just the bit intended to endear them to fans.

Anichebe was the first, but not the last, with Manchester United’s Daley Blind doing similar 12 months later.

BENTEKE ‘SIGNS’ FOR THE WRONG CLUB

In 2016, Christian Benteke joined Crystal Palace as a summer deadline day signing from Liverpool, except someone forgot to tell whoever manages his Twitter account.

The Belgian’s Twitter profile was changed to ‘Burnleyl & Belgium national team [footballer]’ before being swiftly changed to the correct club. Whoops.

Benteke also fell victim to ‘The Anichebe’ gaffe.

STONES, CAHILL MIX UP

Clearly John Stones and Gary Cahill share the same agent, who manages both of their social media accounts.

Otherwise, there’s no other way to explain this celebratory Chelsea post popping up on Stones’ Instagram account, instead of congratulating his Manchester City side for their 5-0 win over Crystal Palace.

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Before Phil Neville returned to the UK to be a BBC and Sky Sports pundit, he was Valencia’s assistant coach in Spain.

Good on Neville for trying to learn a second language, however he did make a rather extreme slip up on Twitter while trying to tell his followers of his morning routine.

LESCOTT ANGERS VILLA FANS

Joleon Lescott angered Aston Villa fans not long after his team were thumped 6-0 by Liverpool. Instead of calling for fans to continue to support the embattled club, or apologising for the performance and result, Lescott instead posted a photo of his expensive car.

Lescott at that point was facing a host of criticism over failing to live up to his £70,000-a-week wage.

His explanation for the gaffe …: “I would like to add that the tweet sent out from my account involving a picture of a car was totally accidental, it happened whilst driving and my phone was in my pocket.”

Yeah, we’re not buying that.