Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga face long road to redemption in China

Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologised for the superstar striker’s comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China won’t be easily or quickly repaired, experts say.

The France captain, one of the best footballers on the planet, is at the centre of a major row after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former leader Mao.

Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto “some guy, think he’s a Chinese dictator”.

Mao remains officially revered as the hero of the communist revolution and founder of the People’s Republic of China.

He is blamed by historians for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe’s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure or entity to infuriate Beijing.

Major Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches will be pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV.

Chinese state media and social media users lined up to lambast Mbappe, although they were left in the dark about what exactly he said.

China has the world’s second-biggest economy and can be hugely lucrative, and within two days the striker, his club Real Madrid, and La Liga all apologised.

A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said the Beijing government took Mbappe’s apology “seriously”.

– ‘Serious damage’ –

So is that the end of the matter?

“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.

“In the age of the mobile internet things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high.

“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.”

The Mbappe furore and fallout is not an unfamiliar tale.

Various overseas sports leagues or players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.

China effectively cut ties with the NBA in 2019 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.

Australian National University lecturer Debby Chan called the NBA case — and now Mbappe — 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.

– No way back? –

Spanish football also has a lot to lose.

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) for the 2024-25 season.

According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates between 10 and 15 percent of its sales of jerseys and merchandise in China.

Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports, and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently.

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.

Sports commentator Yan cast doubt on whether the reputation of Mbappe, whose face has adorned drinks bottles and advertising campaigns 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.”

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