Real Madrid Forward Kylian Mbappe Apologises to Chinese People

One of the current social media phenoms has been to make jokes about Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe being a dictator. 

If you search 'dictator' in the gifs section on social media app Twitter, several gifs showing Mbappe in dictator uniform come up, a trend that has become very popular over the past year or so, and is something Mbappe himself has spoken about. 

Well, very recently, he once again spoke (as relayed by theMadridZone) about the memes, when asked which his favourite one was: "The one where they put my face on a Chinese dictator [Mao Zedong]. That really makes me laugh - I use it with my friends all the time." 

What seemed like a pretty funny and self deprecating comment has turned into a huge storm. Indeed so, as in China, this has gone down like a lead balloon. First, Chinese beverage company DongPeng ended their sponsorship with Mbappe after these comments. Chinese Dairy Brand Megniu also did the same very soon after. 

Then, Chinese state television decided to suspend La Liga broadcast in the country as a result of what the 27-year old said, adding more fuel to the fire. In the aftermath, La Liga president Javier Tebas publicly condemned the comments, saying that the league deeply regret the comments made, and offered apologies to the Chinese people. 

He is not the only person to release a statement as a result of this controversy, as Mbappe himself has also offered his apologies to the people of China, saying: "During a recent interview, I reacted to an image of myself. 

My comment was ill-judged, and now I understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities across the world. I apologise to everyone [who] my words have upset. This was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry. 

Kylian Mbappe." 

Fair play to him. Truth be told, he didn't really say anything that isn't objectively correct. So from that point of view, you can certainly make the argument that he did not need to apologise. 

However, there was no doubt pressure from the league itself. Chinese viewing figures are a huge part of the TV money that La Liga receive. The league is already lagging well behind the Premier League in that aspect, so to lose Chinese viewership would only make things a whole lot worse. Hopefully, after this public apology, China will continue to broadcast La Liga games.