Dani Pacheco defends racial tweet

Published Jun. 6, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Liverpool reserves forward Dani Pacheco's use of the word "negrito" in a Twitter message to teammate Glen Johnson forced the young Spaniard to defend himself on the social networking site.

The 21-year-old, who spent last season on loan at Rayo Vallecano, used the term when wishing the England international luck as he headed to Poland for Euro 2012 on Wednesday.

He tweeted: "@glen-johnson good luck negrito!!!!"

Liverpool teammate Luis Suarez was banned for eight matches for using the same word towards Manchester United's Patrice Evra in a match at Anfield in October.

The Uruguay international unsuccessfully argued 'negrito' was not a derogatory term in the Spanish language, despite its racial connotations in English.

When Pacheco received a couple of critical comments in response to his message he wrote: "I Allready (sic) explained in past what Negrito could mean. Good or bad depends how you say it. I always called @glen-johnson it in terms of love.

"Last tweet about it. @glen-johnson speaks Spanish and he knows what that mean when I say it to him. He is one of best mates there for me."