Kylian Mbappé is at the centre of the biggest commercial storm of his career, and the shockwaves are now being felt far beyond his own bank account — they’re hitting LaLiga’s footprint in one of world football’s most commercially important markets. Three Chinese brand partners have cut ties with the Real Madrid forward, and state broadcaster CCTV has reportedly suspended coverage of LaLiga matches involving him. For Real Madrid fans watching their club’s global reach, this is a story that demands attention.
What Happened
The spark was a short clip connected to the French online show The Bridge. In it, Mbappé is asked which meme of himself he enjoys most — and in his answer he refers to a video of what he describes as “a guy… I think he was a Chinese dictator”, at which point an edited image of his face superimposed on the body of Mao Zedong appears on screen. The footage has not been independently verified, and according to the BBC the show subsequently removed the original clip from its YouTube channel. Neither Mbappé nor The Bridge has publicly addressed the controversy.
The commercial fallout came swiftly. On Tuesday, beverage company Dongpeng, dairy giant Mengniu, and cheese brand Milkground each issued statements — written in strikingly similar language — announcing they were ending all agreements with the player. None of the statements quoted Mbappé directly, but all cited hurt to national feelings. Dongpeng’s statement, published via the state-run Global Times, concluded with a blunt declaration: “Effective immediately, we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé.” Mengniu added that it “firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”
The fallout spread further across Chinese social media. RedNote, whose own content partnership with Mbappé had already expired at the end of 2024, said it would remove any remaining promotional material linked to the player. The Global Times also reported that fashion house Dior, sportswear brand On, and watchmaker Hublot had all cleared Mbappé-related content from their Weibo pages. New users were reportedly unable to follow the forward’s accounts on both RedNote and Weibo. The row even reached China’s foreign ministry, whose spokesperson stated that “words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people will naturally be met with joint opposition from all sectors of Chinese society”, as reported by the Associated Press.
LaLiga Caught in the Crossfire
For Spanish football fans and those monitoring Real Madrid’s global positioning, the most significant development in this story may be what is happening to broadcasting. According to the Global Times, Shanghai outlet The Paper reported that China Media Group — the parent organisation of state broadcaster CCTV — has suspended broadcasts of LaLiga matches involving Mbappé. CCTV’s news apps have also removed content related to the player. At the time of writing, neither Real Madrid nor LaLiga had issued any public statement on the matter, and there was no indication of how long the broadcast suspension might continue.
China is an enormously valuable market for European football. LaLiga, like the Premier League and Champions League, has spent years cultivating a fanbase there, and the loss — even temporarily — of CCTV as a distribution platform is not a trivial matter. For Real Madrid specifically, a club that prides itself on being the world’s biggest and most commercially powerful, having their star forward become a liability in a market of that scale is an uncomfortable situation to navigate, regardless of where the blame ultimately lies.
Mbappé’s “dictator” nickname, it should be noted, is not new to him. It has followed the Frenchman for some time, stemming from the influence he is perceived to wield at both club and international level. In a France Football interview in September, he acknowledged the memes but suggested they “sometimes reveals a lack of political and human awareness among people”, as quoted by the BBC. It is a response that reads rather differently in light of this latest incident.
What It Means for Real Madrid
On the pitch, Mbappé’s form has been encouraging in recent weeks. He was on the scoresheet just days ago as Madrid claimed a 2-1 Clásico victory at Camp Nou — a result that underlined the team’s title credentials, even if it came with fitness concerns around Fede Valverde. He also contributed to the 4-1 Champions League demolition of RB Leipzig. Carlo Ancelotti will want nothing to derail that momentum, but off-field noise of this magnitude rarely stays neatly contained.
Madrid are due at Racing Santander this coming Sunday, and you can bet Ancelotti would prefer all pre-match conversation to be focused on tactics rather than geopolitics. The club will also be aware that their commercial partnerships in Asia are a pillar of the financial model that allows them to compete at the very top of the transfer market year after year. A prolonged controversy involving their marquee signing and one of the world’s largest consumer markets is not something any boardroom wants to sit with for long.
For the supporters, this is one of those stories that is both fascinating and slightly uncomfortable — a reminder that modern football’s biggest stars operate in a media landscape that is genuinely global, where a clip on an online chat show can trigger a foreign ministry response on the other side of the world. Whether Mbappé chooses to address this publicly or let it pass will say a lot about how he and the club intend to manage situations like this going forward. The clock is ticking, and the silence so far has not helped.
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For official club updates, visit Real Madrid’s official website.
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