Mbappe China Redemption Faces Long Road
Mbappe China redemption will take time, experts say, even after apologies from Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid, and La Liga. The France captain is at the centre of a major row after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, and the damage may not be repaired quickly.
Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto what he called some guy, who he thought was a Chinese dictator. Mao remains officially revered in China as the hero of the communist revolution and the founder of the People’s Republic of China. Historians blame him for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe’s remarks made him the latest foreign sports figure to anger Beijing.
Major Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches were pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV.
Within two days, the striker, his club Real Madrid, and La Liga had all apologised. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said the Beijing government took Mbappe’s apology seriously. The question now is whether that is enough.
Mbappe China redemption: what the experts say
“Viewed from a calm, objective and emotion-free standpoint, this is clearly a very damaging incident,” Yan Qiang, a veteran sports commentator, told AFP. “It causes serious damage to the image of La Liga and Real Madrid in China.”
Yan warned that an apology does not end the story. “In the age of the mobile internet things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high,” he said. “An apology does not necessarily mean the end of the story. It’s better to have an apology than no apology at all, but it’s definitely not the end of the story.”
Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said showing fast and heartfelt remorse was the first step. “This will influence the decision on whether to continue the broadcast ban and, if so, for how long,” he told AFP.
Yan also doubted whether Mbappe’s reputation in China can ever fully recover. “Judging by commercial sponsorships and big ad campaigns he appeared in during the World Cup, he has a huge influence in China,” he said. “If that influence can’t be sustained there can be no talk of commercial interests, and La Liga and Real Madrid will definitely be badly affected.”
Yan said it was genuinely hard to predict what happens next. “In the short term, I’m certainly not optimistic,” he added. “If they want to repair their image and the relationship, their future actions and behaviour will be key.”
The NBA warning from 2019
The Mbappe row is not the first time a sports brand has clashed with China over a sensitive topic. In 2019, China effectively cut ties with the NBA after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.
NBA executives said Morey had the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, La Liga immediately distanced itself from what Mbappe said. The NBA, which along with football is the most popular sport in China, was wiped from CCTV for more than a year. NBA pre-season matches only returned to China last year.
Debby Chan, a lecturer at the Australian National University, called the NBA case, and now the Mbappe case, an illustration of China’s consumer nationalism, where online sentiment and state media converge into a spiral of outrage. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league lost hundreds of millions of dollars over the split.
What Spanish football stands to lose
Spanish football has a lot to lose in China. A source within La Liga told AFP that China and the United States alone finance the majority of international broadcasting rights, which were valued at 748 million euros (834 million dollars) for the 2024-25 season.
La Liga also has a Migu deal, agreed in August, to broadcast 380 matches a season until 2030.
Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports, and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently. According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates between 10 and 15 per cent of its sales of jerseys and merchandise in China.
