Kylian Mbappé just lost millions of dollars over a comment about his favorite meme … and while the damage is done, the soccer superstar says he’s “sincerely sorry.”
Expensive question.
The controversy started when Kylian was asked by the French talk show about his favorite meme of himself … and responded, saying it was “a video someone made of a guy, I think he was a Chinese dictator.”
The clip then shows an altered image of Mbappé’s face on the body of Mao Zedong, the founding leader of Communist China.
Shortly after the comment, beverage maker Dongpeng, dairy giant Mengniu and cheese maker Milkground all announced they’re ending their sponsorship agreements with Mbappé … each saying, in similarly worded statements, that they oppose “any words and actions that hurt national sentiment.”
The companies didn’t single out the Mao comment, but the timing makes it pretty hard to ignore.
FWIW, soccer fans have jokingly called Mbappé a dictator for a while now, and memes of him as Mao are all over the internet.
China wasn’t laughing.
The Foreign Ministry said … “Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with joint opposition from all sectors of Chinese society.”
Social media giant RedNote piled on too, announcing they’d be removing any promotional material from when they worked with Mbappe years ago.
In response to the outrage, Kylian hit up X to say sorry … a statement he dropped in French, Chinese and English.
“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. This was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry.”
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Kylian Mbappé apologises for Mao ‘dictator’ meme comment, dropped by Chinese brands
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