Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologised for the French striker’s comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China will not be easily or quickly repaired, experts say.
The France captain, one of the best footballers on the planet, is at the centre of a controversy after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former leader Mao.
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Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face digitally altered onto “some guy, think he’s a Chinese dictator”.
Mao remains officially revered as the hero of the communist revolution and founder of the People’s Republic of China.
He is blamed by historians for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe’s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure or entity to infuriate Beijing.
Leading Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches will be pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV’s schedule.
Chinese state media and social media users lined up to lambast Mbappe, although they were left in the dark about what exactly he said.
China is the world’s second-biggest economy and most lucrative market. Within two days, as the video, purportedly filmed in April, circulated online, the striker, his club Real Madrid and La Liga apologised.
A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government took Mbappe’s apology “seriously”.
‘Very damaging incident’
So is that the end of the matter?
“Viewed from a calm, objective and emotion-free standpoint, this is clearly a very damaging incident,” Yan Qiang, a veteran sports commentator, told the AFP news agency.
“It causes serious damage to the image of La Liga and Real Madrid in China.
“In the age of the mobile internet, things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high.
“An apology does not necessarily mean the end of the story.
“It’s better to have an apology than no apology at all, but it’s definitely not the end of the story.”
The furore and the fallout are not an unfamiliar tale.
Various overseas sports leagues or players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.
China effectively cut ties with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States in 2019 after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.
NBA executives said Morey had the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, La Liga immediately distanced itself from what Mbappe said.
Basketball is among the most popular sports in China along with football. However, Morey’s remark saw the NBA wiped from CCTV for more than a year.
NBA preseason matches returned to China only last year.
Australian National University lecturer Debby Chan called the NBA case – and now Mbappe’s – an illustration of China’s consumer nationalism, where online sentiment and state media converge into “a spiral of outrage”.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” over the split.
No way back for Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga?
Spanish football also has a lot to lose.
A source within La Liga told AFP that China and the US alone finance the “majority” of international broadcasting rights, which were valued at 748 million euros ($834m) for the 2024-25 season.
According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates 10 to 15 percent of its jersey and other merchandise sales in China.
Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently.
Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said showing fast and heartfelt remorse was the first step.
“This will influence the decision on whether to continue the broadcast ban and, if so, for how long,” he told AFP.
Sports commentator Yan cast doubt on whether the reputation of Mbappe, whose face has adorned drink bottles and advertising campaigns in China, can ever fully recover.
“Judging by commercial sponsorships and big ad campaigns he appeared in during the World Cup, he has a huge influence in China,” he said.
“If that influence can’t be sustained, there can be no talk of commercial interests, and La Liga and Real Madrid will definitely be badly affected.”
Yan said it was “genuinely hard to predict” what happens next.
“In the short term, I’m certainly not optimistic,” he added.
“If they want to repair their image and the relationship, their future actions and behaviour will be key.”