Mbappe’s Real Madrid issues an apology to China

Real Madrid yesterday apologized to China for star striker Kylian Mbappe’s comments poking fun at Mao Zedong, after the star striker’s remarks sparked a social media storm and saw Spanish soccer yanked off state TV.

Mocking former leader Mao — blamed by historians for millions of deaths — is taboo in China, and Mbappe’s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure to anger Beijing.

In a clip of a video interview with French show The Bridge — since taken down — Mbappe talked about being amused by an Internet meme of his face photoshopped onto “some guy, think he’s a Chinese dictator,” an apparent reference to Mao.

French soccer star Kylian Mbappe’s Xiaohongshu account is displayed on a cellphone with the message: “This account has been muted for violating community guidelines” in Shanghai yesterday.

Photo: AFP

Real Madrid “wishes to express its apologies to the Chinese people for any offense caused by the recent remarks of our player Kylian Mbappe,” the club said in a statement.

“The club joins in the public apology issued by Kylian Mbappe, in which the player himself expressed his regret for his words and reiterated his respect for the Chinese people,” the 15-time European champions said.

The statement came a day after Mbappe issued his own apology, 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,” he said.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun yesterday told a regular briefing: “We take seriously the apology the individual concerned has made.”

La Liga, which saw the broadcast of its matches suspended in China, on Tuesday said it “deeply regrets the offence that Kylian Mbappe’s recent comments have caused among Chinese fans.”

Earlier, the state-run Global Times said in an editorial that it was “not difficult to see that the club’s longstanding tolerance of such behavior has contributed to Mbappe’s latest offensive remarks.”

Chinese beverage giant Dongpeng, which during this year’s FIFA World Cup ran advertisements with artificial intelligence-generated images of Mbappe, on Tuesday said it had scrapped its partnership with the player, as did dairy firms Mengniu and Milkground.

China Media Group, which oversees public broadcaster China Central Television, said it would suspend broadcasts of La Liga, the world’s second-richest soccer league after England’s Premier League.

Mbappe, 27, yesterday continued to face a torrent of criticism from Chinese Web users, some of it racist.

“His remarks were hurtful toward China and the Chinese people, so they cannot be translated,” one user wrote on Sina Weibo.

Mbappe’s original joke about Mao was not reposted — or had been scrubbed — from China’s tightly controlled social media.

Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu froze Mbappe’s account, where he has more than 1 million followers.

Sina Weibo did the same, with a notice saying he had been banned for violating the law or its terms of service.

Some Chinese media reports said global brands like Dior and Hublot had removed their Mbappe-related content on Sina Weibo.

Offline, too, the Mbappe brand appeared to be under threat.

At the Adidas flagship store in Beijing’s Sanlitun shopping district, Real Madrid shirts were available for sale, but none bearing the striker’s name.