Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has defended winger Bernardo Silva over a controversial tweet involving team-mate Benjamin Mendy.
The Guardian reported that the Portugal international had posted a childhood picture of Mendy alongside the mascot of Spanish confectionery company Conguitos with the caption “Guess who?”, the tweet later being deleted.
Consequently, anti-racism organisation Kick It Out called for the Football Association to take action against Bernardo over his “discriminatory” tweet, despite Mendy seemingly taking no offence over its content, as reported by The Guardian.
Following last night’s Carabao Cup win over Preston, Guardiola strongly defended the 25-year-old as a “lovely” person, saying that he has a strong friendship with Mendy. [via The Guardian]
Sam Lee, Manchester City correspondent for The Athletic, reacted to Guardiola’s comments by taking to Twitter to defend Bernardo’s personality but condemn the nature of his tweet. [via @SamLee]
Wasn’t in the press conference but have seen the comments. Can see why Guardiola has backed up Bernardo, who is clearly not a bad guy. But while the post wasn’t abusive, it was public, included ugly stereotypes and was offensive to a lot of people. You’ve got to accept that.
— Sam Lee (@SamLee) September 24, 2019
These Manchester City fans on Twitter were also critical of Bernardo’s judgement in his tweet about Mendy:
https://twitter.com/BrianKiddsMate2/status/1176626266683924480
Shouldn't defend the action, B Silva can be the nicest guy but the post was ignorant of so much sinister history, plus his IG stories did talk about Mendy's skin colour (unless that was a bad edit). Club should have condemned the action and had a social media diversity seminar
— JB (@thejb2018) September 24, 2019
Not in anyway nasty but in current climate stupid and ignorant even if they are best mates.
— Kevin Morton. (@KevinMo31529386) September 24, 2019
Fully agree, Sam. We know they’re friends and joke the way they do. We also know Bernardo is a nice guy, but it was just not properly thought out and was indeed insensitive.
— Simone (@Vrtlnsanity) September 24, 2019
https://twitter.com/CTIDBen/status/1176739267038650370
https://twitter.com/oli_mcfc/status/1176622527646445574
Do you think Bernardo was foolish in his tweet about Mendy or has the criticism of him been excessive? Join in the discussion by commenting below!
