“A storm in a glass of water”: Pascal Praud supports Kylian Mbappé

For several days, Kylian Mbappé has been at the center of a diplomatic incident. In the podcast The Bridge, hosted by Aurélien Tchouaméni, Sandy Héribert and Donel Jacks'man, the captain of the French football team has, in fact, admitted that among the numerous montages and memes in which we see him on social networks, the one which represents him as a "Chinese dictator", in this case Mao Zedong, president of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1959 but in power until his death, in 1976, as president of the Chinese Communist Party, was “the one where [he] laughed the most.”

Faced with the outcry caused by his comments - three sponsors turned their backs on the Real Madrid striker - he was forced to publish an official press release. “I apologize to all those who were offended by my words. That was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry. During a recent interview, I reacted to an image of myself portraying myself. This comment was clumsy, and I understand today that it hurt many people in China and within the Chinese community around the world,” he wrote in French, English and Mandarin.

Wednesday morning, on CNews, Pascal Praud devoted his editorial to this controversy. “If we needed an example of the madness of our time, the Mbappé affair, forced to apologize to China, illustrates this world where screens, social networks, but also the grotesque and the senseless have taken power,” began the host of “L’Heure des pros” emphasizing that “the interview with Aurélien Tchouaméni took place in a friendly, humorous setting.”

The journalist then deplored that this video, filmed seven months ago, emerged “as if by a miracle” on the day of the 2026 Ballon d’Or ceremony. “The Chinese authorities are furious, we do not play with Mao, without hurting, I quote, the feelings of the Chinese people. Chinese brands have suspended Mbappé's advertising contracts, video games have removed Mbappé from their content in China and Chinese public television is boycotting Spanish championship matches,” he recalled.

“All that for that,” said Pascal Praud. “Mbappé just said that Mao was a dictator, which no one will dispute. So the captain of the France team apologized. He is sincerely sorry, he said. He regrets clumsy comments. In short, a storm in a glass of water which illustrates an era where one buzz chases the other. Tomorrow, we will have already forgotten,” he concluded.