France’s footballers and China: How Kylian Mbappé became a dictator

WThe magnitude of the affair and the damage caused can be seen from the number and type of apologies. League president Javier Tebas apologized on behalf of Spanish football. Real Madrid rushed to express its “deep respect for China, its history, its culture and its people.” And Kylian Mbappé himself asked the Chinese people and their fans via X for forgiveness for his “rash” words.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, because the French attacker in the employ of Real Madrid made fun of Mao Zedong, and Mao is where the fun ends in China. The result: protests from the Foreign Ministry, announced TV boycotts against Spanish league games, sponsors turning away. And when it comes to issues that concern money, the fun in football stops.

All of this cannot be understood without a meme that has gained wide popularity on the Internet. Memes are combinations of images, videos or GIFs with short text elements that can be quickly consumed and understood, and the history of this meme begins in 2024. At that time, Mbappé took action against the Marseille snack bar operator and influencer Mohamed Henni. He named a kebab dish after the then PSG player – he wanted this to be understood as a reference to Mbappé’s head shape. Mbappé complains, Henni counters publicly: Mbappé has “turned his name into a dictatorship” and attacks more resolutely in court than on the pitch.

This was intended to be an allusion to the French attacker’s sometimes lack of willingness to press, which drove his then coach Luis Enrique, among others, to despair. But what social media was more interested in was the connection between the name Mbappé and the term dictatorship. In autumn 2024, the first montage showing Mbappé as Mao Zedong was uploaded to the Reddit platform. And that one picture started a chain reaction.

Mbappé can be seen in military clothing on social networks in thousands of mostly AI-generated images

Since then, users on social networks have wanted to recognize a “dictatorial streak” in every Frenchman’s action, no matter how small. Thousands of images and videos of inconspicuous scenes were created on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok, followed by mostly AI-generated images of various dictators in military clothing. You can then see how Mbappé refused to stand up for the FC Barcelona players at the 2025 Spanish Super Cup and directed his teammates to do the same. Or a scene in which he instructs a colleague to get the captain’s armband from N’Golo Kanté and finally give it to him. Each such action served as evidence of the alleged Mbappé dictatorship.

Since April 2026, such videos have been predominantly accompanied by the same song, the “Kylian Dictador Anthem” – in German “Kylian Dictator Anthem”. This is an AI generated Spanish electro phonk song. Also in April 2026, Mbappé publicly commented on one of these dictator memes for the first time. Under an Instagram post by transfer blogger Fabrizio Romano, which shows a fan in the stadium holding up such a dictator meme, the striker commented: “Don’t do that again”. But as is well known since the famous example of actress Barbra Streisand (“Streisand Effect”): an attempt at censorship, if it was meant seriously in this case, draws attention to a topic, and so since then there have only been more pictures and videos of Mbappé in uniforms.

The creators of such content are also fueled by statements from Mbappé’s teammates. His national teammate Ousmane Dembélé publicly called him “Mobutu”, after Sese Seko Mobutu, the long-time dictator of the Congo; Mobutu was already the PSG fans’ nickname for their then offensive star Mbappé in 2023, before these memes even existed. Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois later pointed out that the dictator song was played regularly in the dressing room in Madrid.

There have been few other public reactions from Mbappé himself. The song was played to him on a television program, to which he responded with laughter. In an episode of the online talk show “The Bridge” recorded in April, which is moderated by his Madrid teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni, among others, he finally commented on this topic. When asked about the best meme about himself, Mbappé replied that it was the one in which his face was mounted on the face of a “Chinese dictator.” He said with a laugh that he often uses this image in private chats with friends while playing PlayStation. The statement was not visible in the original video of the talk; the production company only published this additional excerpt as a social media clip on October 26th, the day on which the Ballon d’Or was awarded in London, in which Mbappé came second behind Harry Kane.

It was this statement that is now turning into a state affair. By “Chinese dictator,” Mbappé clearly meant Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic, who died in 1976. This is an affront to China. As the Chinese Foreign Ministry puts it: “Words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people are naturally met with unanimous rejection from all parts of Chinese society.”

Satirical or critical discussions of Mao are generally censored in the People’s Republic

Mao enjoys a high reputation in China, as decreed by the state. Any satirical or critical discussion of him is usually heavily censored online in the People’s Republic – and this was also the case in this case. And on top of that, the mockery had concrete consequences for Mbappé, Real and Spanish football.

The boycott of China is expanding even further. The video game simulations “FC Online” and “eFootball” – formerly Pro Evolution Soccer – removed the World Cup record goalscorer from their media channels and announced that they would no longer include him in future updates and promotions in the country. And Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reportedly stopped all Spanish La Liga broadcasts and promotional content related to the striker from the evening of October 26.

The Chinese sports drink manufacturer Dongpeng and the dairy group Mengniu, among others, ended their collaboration with Mbappé with immediate effect. In a statement, Dongpeng said it has a zero-tolerance policy for any behavior that offends national sentiments. The company did not go into more detail about how exactly these feelings had been insulted; it only referred to an interview given by the company’s now former advertising face. To date, Mbappé’s likeness has appeared on many of the Chinese company’s beverage bottles.

Whether all the apologies are enough to calm things down remains to be seen. But new memes about it will definitely not be long in coming.