Kylian Mbappé has apologised for his “ill-judged” comment about the former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, which has led to brands in China dropping the Real Madrid forward. In China jokes about Mao, the founding leader of the People’s Republic of China who died in 1976, are considered disrespectful and remain a social taboo.
“Our company firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments,” the drinks company Dongpeng said in a statement earlier on Tuesday, adding that “with immediate effect we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé”.
Adverts showing AI-generated images of the 27-year-old France captain drinking a Dongpeng sports drink were regularly shown in China during this year’s World Cup.
Mengniu, China’s largest dairy producer, also cut ties with the Real Madrid forward, who has been hugely popular among Chinese fans with millions of followers on social media. Mbappé is fondly nicknamed “Guigui”, the Chinese translation of “Turtle”, due to his popularity as a character in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meme. “With immediate effect our company is terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé,” Mengniu said in a statement. “Mengniu firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,” it added.
The announcements came after a video emerged online with Mbappé saying that the funniest internet meme he had seen was of his face photo-shopped on to that of “some guy – I think he’s a Chinese dictator”. This was an apparent reference to a meme of Mbappé superimposed on an image of Mao, one of several using the footballer’s face and other historical figures.
“My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world. I apologise to everyone my words have upset,” the Frenchman said in a statement.
“Dongpeng Beverage ends cooperation with Mbappé” was the top-trending topic on the Chinese social media site Weibo. One Weibo user said that the “extremely serious wrong remarks … crossed the red line. They are completely unacceptable”. Others urged Dongpeng to remove Mbappé’s image from their energy drink bottles.
Dongqiudi, one of China’s biggest online football outlets, said in a statement on Monday evening that Mbappé’s remarks were “offensive to China and the Chinese people” and “have hurt the feelings of Chinese football fans and the Chinese people”.
Mbappé in September addressed a previous meme depicting him as a military dictator, in an interview with the French sports newspaper L’Equipe. “There’s a part of it that’s funny. You can tell that, for some people, it’s all in good fun. But there is another part that’s a bit less funny because of the damage such people have caused throughout history,” he said. “Being compared to individuals who murder others, or who have brought misery to millions upon millions of people – well, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like that in my life,” he said.
In a statement released on Tuesday morning, La Liga condemened Mbappe’s remarks. It read: “La Liga deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappe’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans. These comments were made in a personal capacity and do not represent La Liga.”
Global sports stars who have commented on sensitive topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong have previously caused controversy in China and been dumped by sponsors there. The former NBA player Dwight Howard referred to Taiwan as a country in 2023 as he appeared in a video with the island’s vice-president and current president, Lai Ching-te, sparking fury on Chinese social media. Beijing claims Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.
