By Fernando Kallas
MADRID, Oct 27 (Reuters) – France and Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe has drawn public lines against extremism and police violence in his home country, but a joke about his own power in football carried him across a different boundary on Tuesday and forced him to apologise to China over an apparent reference to Mao Zedong.
The “dictator Mbappe” memes began as caricatures of his influence at Paris St Germain, not statements of political allegiance. By apparently laughing at an image depicting him as Mao, however, the France captain entered territory in which self-mockery could be perceived as an insult to a country’s founding leader.
Mbappe said the funniest meme he had seen of himself depicted him as “some guy — I think he’s a Chinese dictator”. Chinese brands subsequently cut ties with him, turning an apparently casual remark into a major commercial setback.
The sensitivity goes beyond disapproval of an unflattering description. Mao founded the People’s Republic of China and remains central to its official history. Jokes about him are still taboo, and what Mbappe apparently treated as a comic disguise carries a very different significance in China.
That was far removed from the football grievance behind the original caricature.
The memes took off around Mbappe’s 2022 PSG contract extension, exaggerating supporters’ perceptions that he could decide who played, who was sacked and who was sold by the club. They gathered momentum around his acrimonious 2024 departure and followed him to Real Madrid, with artificial intelligence helping multiply the edits.
A recurring figure was former Zaire ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, complete with his distinctive leopard-skin hat. The nickname travelled from supporters into France’s dressing room, where team mate Ousmane Dembele called Mbappe “Mobut” in footage posted by the French FA during the World Cup.
Mbappe was not oblivious to the uncomfortable history behind the humour. He told France Football last month that Dembele had picked it up from social media and accepted their exchange as “just a joke”, while saying other versions showed “a lack of political and human awareness among people”.
That distinction fits a player who has repeatedly used his public position to say where he believes acceptable behaviour ends.
DIFFERENT POLITICAL STORM
The controversy puts Mbappe in an unfamiliar position after public interventions against political extremism, racism and police violence.
During France’s 2024 parliamentary election campaign, Mbappe declared himself “against extremes, ideas that divide” and urged young people to vote.
Asked about team mate Marcus Thuram’s opposition to the far-right National Rally, Mbappe endorsed Thuram’s values of tolerance and respect. After the first round of voting, he said the country could not be left in the hands of “these people”.
His response to the police killing of teenager Nahel M. in the suburbs of Paris in 2023 combined solidarity with restraint: he called it an “unacceptable situation”, then shared a team statement acknowledging the anger while rejecting the violence.
This year, Mbappe demanded a Champions League ban for Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni over an alleged racist insult towards his Real teammate Vinicius Jr, saying he heard it five times. Prestianni denied the allegation, saying Vinicius had misheard, but UEFA handed him a six-match suspension for homophobic conduct.
For a player accustomed to taking public positions, Mbappe’s apparent attempt at self-mockery has become a controversy with consequences reaching far beyond himself.
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas, editing by Ed Osmond)
Comments