Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva deleted a tweet comparing his teammate Benjamin Mendy to a character from Spanish chocolate peanut brand Conguitos.
Silva posted the side-by-side picture on his Twitter on Sunday afternoon and Mendy, who he played with at Monaco before the pair moved to Manchester in the summer, saw the funny side.
The Portugal international elected to delete the tweet after receiving backlash for what people perceived to be 'offensive' and 'racist', although Silva posted a second tweet saying, "Can't even joke with a friend these days... You guys..." along with a face-palm emoji.
According to Diana Q. Palardy of Youngstown State University, who did a paper on 'The changing face of race in Spanish advertising' me, Conguitos was launched all the way back in 1961 and the brand is bbased on 'little people from the Congo'.
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At one stage, the advertising campaign included spear-wielding African native characters.
The Portuguese midfielder has been accused of racism on Twitter.
On Saturday, Silva scored his first ever career hat-trick when he bagged a trio of goals in City's record 8-0 hammering of Watford at the Etihad.
Featured Image Credit:Topics:ย Manchester City, Watford, Football News, Football, Premier League, Bernardo Silva, AS Monaco, Benjamin Mendy