French football star Kylian Mbappé loses three Chinese sponsors over Mao joke

French football star Kylian Mbappé has lost three Chinese sponsorship deals after a video clip showed him calling a meme of himself as Mao Zedong his favorite, describing the figure as "a Chinese dictator."

Dongpeng Beverage, which makes energy and electrolyte drinks, dairy group China Mengniu Dairy Co. and cheese maker Milkground all said on Tuesday that they were ending their agreements with the Real Madrid striker. Their statements, worded in much the same way, said they opposed "any words and actions that hurt national sentiment." None of the companies disclosed what the deals were worth.

Dongpeng went furthest. The company said it "firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for any conduct that hurts national feelings" and that it was "terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé" with immediate effect. It signed Mbappé in April as brand ambassador for its electrolyte drink ahead of the World Cup, and its Chinese advertisements showed him delivering a slogan in Chinese. Mengniu had featured him alongside Argentina captain Lionel Messi in a television commercial.

Mbappé says sorry

Mbappé apologised in a statement posted on X on Tuesday. "During a recent interview, I reacted to an image featuring myself," he said. "My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world."

"I apologise to everyone my words have upset. That was absolutely not my intention," he said. "I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry."

The clip comes from a backstage segment filmed for The Bridge, a French online talk show, earlier this year. Asked to name the meme of himself that made him laugh most, Mbappé described "a video someone made of a guy ... I think he was a Chinese dictator," and said he used it often with friends. The clip then cut to an edited image of his face on the body of Mao, the founder of the People's Republic of China, who ruled the country from 1949 until his death in 1976. Jokes about the country's leaders are taboo in China.

The video spread on X and Reddit around Monday's Ballon d'Or ceremony in London, where Mbappé finished behind England captain Harry Kane. By Tuesday, hashtags about Dongpeng and other brands ending their deals with him had topped the trending list on Weibo, China's main microblogging platform, and a tag calling on football fans to boycott Mbappé was also spreading.

China's Foreign Ministry weighed in. Spokesman Guo Jiakun said words and deeds that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people would be opposed across Chinese society. RedNote, the Chinese social media app also known as Xiaohongshu, said its content partnership with Mbappé had ended on Dec. 31, 2024, and that it would remove related promotional material. His account on the app stopped accepting new followers.

A $100 million earner

The fallout hits one of the best-paid athletes in the world. Mbappé, 27, is expected to earn $100 million this season, $70 million of it from his playing contract and $30 million from endorsements and other business, which makes him the world's third-highest-paid footballer behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

His off-field income comes from a roster of global brands. In September he ended his long partnership with Nike and signed with On, the Swiss running shoe maker, in a deal that includes equity in the company. He finished as top scorer at this year's World Cup with 10 goals and scored 58 goals in all competitions last season.

Mbappé has long guarded his commercial interests closely. In 2022 he refused to take part in a French national team photo shoot over the use of his image by sponsors, a dispute that led the French Football Federation to review its image rights agreement with players.