Mbappé's China faux pas: When the sports world collides with the complexities of geopolitics

The captain of France's national football team trending in China for perhaps all the wrong reasons. Sponsors there pulling their support for Kylian Mbappe, the backlash over he reportedly told a French talk show that a meme of himself resembling a Chinese dictator made him laugh the most. A dictator who looks a lot like Mao. That has also sparked an apology now from the Real Madrid star. The Chinese who are looking to pull their contract to broadcast Spanish La Liga football. Yolanda Souza has more. This image superimposed during an interview of Kylian Mbappe has set off a storm in China. The 27-year-old football star told the host of a French talk show that a meme of him resembling a Chinese dictator makes him laugh the most. The image refers to Mao Zedong, the founder of China's Communist Party, who's revered in the country to this day. The backlash has prompted an official response from Beijing. We have seen the relevant reports. Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with unanimous rejection from all sectors of Chinese society. While Mbappé did not identify Mao by name and the original video has been taken down from YouTube, screen grabs have spread across social media in China. Kylian Mbappé is hugely popular in the communist country and has several big-ticket endorsements. Now, companies associated with the French striker have put out statements referring to hurt sentiments and announced they were ending agreements with Mbappé. The controversy has also resulted in China's state broadcasters suspending La Liga matches and football fans have been quick to react. These are national brands and they're patriotic. Naturally, any behavior or rhetoric that insults China will be rejected. I used to really enjoy watching Mbappé play on the pitch, but ever since this news broke, I personally don't like it. Kylian Mbappé, who made his debut for Real Madrid in 2024, has jokingly been nicknamed by football fans as the dictator, suggesting he has the power to call the shots in the world of football. And for more, let's go to Luxembourg. Igor Mladenovic is a sports business analyst, a former football reporter and commentator. Thanks for being with us here on France 24. Hi. Nice to see you, François. The sports stars who speak out is nothing new. Here, though, this wasn't some kind of pointed political stance. It was an off-the-cuff remark. Absolutely. I think it was just a misunderstanding. I think Kylian is very fond of China, and I think he has basically made a small mistake, which I hope is going to be corrected because he is a role model and he deserves to be respected in China as well as elsewhere in the world I don't think that what he said was anything directed against Mao Zedong at all I don't think his intention was to make fun of Mao whatsoever, that was definitely not his intention of course I'm not in his place but let's not forget that uh kilian was born long after mao's rule and does not have any uh experience of living in china so uh i think uh he know who mao is and i think he did not have a conception of how important he is to chinese people but uh maybe he spends a few days in china and things yeah the question is uh what's the most striking in this story this backlash or the fact that one remark these days you make somewhere comes back to haunt you immediately well these are people's um strongest sensitivities um Mao was someone who could actually uh influence people's He was extremely influential in China, and I think you have to be very careful whatever you say nowadays, indeed, because political statements get misinterpreted a lot. And Kilian was probably not aware of how sensitive the Chinese government can be with regard to mentioning a picture or a symbol representing the former Chinese ruler. But to me, it's more a misunderstanding than an attack. Back in 2019, the general manager of the Denver Nuggets, he tweeted out his support to the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. That wasn't a mistake. That was an intent. The backlash was huge. The NBA issued apologies. There were people angry with the U.S. Professional Sports League for kowtowing to Beijing at the time. That was a different context or the same? No, it was completely different. I think it was Daryl Morey, right? Yes. I think he knew exactly what he was doing. And the relationship between the U.S. and China is very tense. And I think you have to take the whole context into account. His comments were issued at a time of unprecedented tension between China and the U.S., and this was the final drop, so to speak. This has absolutely nothing to do with Kylian Mbappé's remark, which was really off the cuff and which was nothing against China at all. I think Daryl Morey's remark had something to do with the U.S.'s general stance against China. very negative and i believe that that's the reason why uh both things are unrelated uh the um Mbappé it may have been unintentional he may have issued that that apology but what is true is that uh sports stars today are more outspoken than they were a few decades back we all remember the famous phrase of Michael Jordan the who said that republicans too buy sneakers uh in explaining why he refused to get involved in any way, shape or form in politics at the time. Today, they speak out, including, by the way, Mbappe himself when it comes to calling out the far right national rally here in France. Will this incident have a chilling effect on athletes who use their platform? I don't think so. I think athletes are citizens. They have voting rights and they have every right to speak out. But the reality is that their life is extremely different from the lives of most of their compatriots. They went through a very different lifestyle. They grew up in sometimes a very different household and then started working, so to speak, much earlier. And they retired also much earlier. So Mbappé does not really care whether the retirement age in France is 62 or 65. He's going to retire at the age of 33 or 36. So he's a little bit maybe disconnected from the reality of most French people, which means that he has every right to speak out, but it's not always going to be relevant to most French people. Igor Mladenovic, thank you so much for joining us from Luxembourg. Thank you. Stay with us. There's much more to come. we'll have more news plus the day's uh business and sports you're watching France 24