Pep Guardiola has leapt to the defence of Bernardo Silva after the Football Association asked for Manchester City's observations over a social media post from the Portuguese midfielder.
Bernardo took to Twitter over the weekend to post what appeared to be a picture of Benjamin Mendy as a child next to a Spanish cartoon advertising confectionery brand Conguito, but was forced to delete the post after accusations it might have been racist.
The City teammates have been friends since their days at Monaco and Mendy responded to Bernardo's post with a a smiley face emoji, but anti-discriminatory charity Kick It Out have since called on the FA to take action and the governing body are investigating the post.
If found guilty the 25-year-old could face a fine and a ban, but Guardiola has insisted there were no racial connotations to Bernardo's post and defended the motives of his player.
"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," the City boss said after his side had beaten Preston in the Carabao Cup.
"Bernardo is one of 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.
"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.
"Bernardo is an exceptional person. A guy who can speak five languages, it’s because he’s open-minded – nothing about the colour of the skin, nationalities or whatever."
