Real Madrid stood firm longer than most clubs would – all of a few hours – before bending the knee to China and issuing a formal apology amid the controversy and backlash involving forward Kylian Mbappe and a meme of the late dictator Mao Zedong.
The club initially argued that Mbappe had no intent to offend while also explaining that players have freedom of expression, which predictably did not go over well.
During a recent interview on The Bridge, a French talk show hosted by Mbappe’s Real Madrid teammate Aurelien Tchouameni, the 27-year-old superstar laughed about a meme with his face imposed on an image resembling Mao. One of Mbappe’s most popular nicknames is “The Dictator,” hence the meme and joking around.
China did not find anything funny about the French star laughing at a meme of Mao, the communist dictator whose regime resulted in tens of millions of deaths. Several Chinese sponsors severed ties with Mbappe, and state-run CCTV stopped airing La Liga matches in China, the top-flight league in Spain that featured Real Madrid and 19 other clubs.
La Liga wasted no time in issuing a public apology, explaining that Mbappe’s comments do not represent the league. Less than an hour later came Mbappe’s own public apology, which included a note that he now understands his comments “hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world.
Real Madrid apologised to China on Wednesday for Kylian Mbappe’s comments poking fun at Mao Zedong, after the star striker’s remarks sparked a social media storm and saw Spanish football 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.
Real Madrid “wishes to express its apologies to the Chinese people for any offence 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, saying: “My comment was ill-judged and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world.”
Foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular briefing on Wednesday: “We take seriously the apology the individual concerned has made.”
La Liga, which saw the broadcast of its matches suspended in China, said Tuesday 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 World Cup ran adverts with AI-generated images of Mbappe, said Tuesday it had scrapped its partnership with the player, as did dairy firms Mengniu and Milkground.
CMG, which oversees public broadcaster CCTV, said it had decided to suspend broadcasts of La Liga, the world’s second-richest football league after England’s Premier League.
Mbappe, 27, continued to face a torrent of criticism from Chinese web users on Wednesday, some of it racist.
“His remarks were hurtful toward China and the Chinese people, so they cannot be translated,” wrote one user on social media platform 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 had meanwhile frozen Mbappe’s account, where he has over a million followers.
The same was done on the Weibo app, with a notice stating that “the user has been banned from following due to violating laws or the Weibo Community Convention”.
Some Chinese media reports said global brands like Dior and Hublot had removed their Mbappe-related content on Weibo.
An AFP search on Dior and Hublot’s Weibo page with Mbappe’s Chinese name produced no results.
– ‘Respect history’ –
Offline too the Mbappe brand appeared to be under threat.
When AFP visited the Adidas flagship store in Beijing’s Sanlitun shopping district, Real Madrid shirts were available for sale, but none bearing the striker’s name.
Chinese state media have previously praised Mbappe as a “footballing sensation” and “talent”.
His face is plastered on billboards, on soft drinks and across social media.
Mbappe is sometimes affectionately referred to as “Guigui”, meaning “turtle” in Chinese, for his resemblance to a character from the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie.
Other major overseas sports leagues have previously angered China.
China suspended sponsorship deals with the NBA while the state broadcaster pulled NBA games off Chinese television for a year in October 2019.
This followed Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey tweeting “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong”, referring to protests Beijing called separatist and seditious.
“Respecting the history, culture, social customs and national sentiments of others is a fundamental principle for cross-border interaction, a standard of conduct widely upheld by the international community,” the official People’s Daily newspaper said in an opinion piece.
