Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has defended one of his star men after the player found himself in hot water for making a controversial post on Twitter.
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On Saturday, Bernardo Silva netted a hat-trick for City in their 8-0 drubbing of Watford, but went from hero to zero after the match when he jokingly posted a picture of teammate Benjamin Mendy alongside the logo of Spanish confectionery company Conguitos, along with the caption: "Guess who?"
The post, which has since been deleted, was seemingly taken in the spirit it was intended by Mendy but was widely condemned across social media as being racist, prompting Silva to respond.
"Can't even joke with a friend these days... You guys...," read his follow-up tweet.
City boss Guardiola has now defended Silva's action after football's anti-discriminatory body Kick It Out called for the Football Association to take action against the Portugal star.
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"Honestly, I don't know what will happen. They should put their focus on another issue because they don't know which guy you are talking about," Guardiola said, as reported by Sky Sports.
"Bernardo is one of the most lovely people I ever met in my life. He speaks four or five languages and that is the best way to understand how open-minded he is and one of his best friends is Mendy. He's like a brother for him.
"The image is not about the colour of the skin. He took a picture of Benjamin when he was young and he related it to this cartoon, which was quite similar for the image.
"If they want to do that (investigate) and ask for Bernardo, I think he will be open to talk. But first you have to know exactly which person you are talking about.
"There are many situations with people, with white people and you look at a cartoon and the face is quite similar as your face and you put it in there, it is quite similar.
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"I think the response from Mendy was clear after that. They are joking all the time. Maybe what I say as advice is to hide social media… if something happened, it would be a mistake."
Do you think Silva's tweet was racist, or has it been blown out of proportion? Let us have your thoughts by commenting in the section below.
