The former Arsenal forward is understood to be considering legal action after the Breitbart website used a photo of him to illustrate a story on illegal immigration.
The US far-right outlet showed a picture of Mr Podolski on a jet-ski on an article with the headline ‘Spanish police crack gang moving migrants on jet-skis’.
After a barrage of criticism, the photo was changed and the editor issued a clarification under the piece: “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. 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.”
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Mr Podolski, 32, played his final international game for Germany in March this year against England, scoring the winning goal and beating the side 1-0.
He was signed by Japan's Vissel Kobe in June.
