Three Chinese sponsors drop Mbappé as LaLiga broadcasts suspended over meme clip

Kylian Mbappé is facing the most serious commercial crisis of his career in China, after three major sponsors terminated their deals with the Real Madrid forward on Tuesday and state broadcaster CCTV reportedly suspended LaLiga coverage involving the player.

The controversy stems from a short clip linked to the French online show The Bridge, in which Mbappé is asked which meme of himself he likes most. He refers to a video of “a guy … I think he was a Chinese dictator”, before an edited image of his face on the body of Mao Zedong appears, as reported by the Associated Press. The footage has not been independently verified, and according to the BBC, the show subsequently removed the original upload from its YouTube channel.

Three sponsors walk away

Beverage firm Dongpeng, dairy group Mengniu and cheese brand Milkground each issued statements on Tuesday in strikingly similar language, citing hurt national feelings without quoting Mbappé directly. Dongpeng’s statement, carried by the state-run Global Times, concluded: “Effective immediately, we are terminating all cooperation with Kylian Mbappé.”

Mengniu said it “firmly opposes and has zero tolerance for any words or actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.” Social platform RedNote, whose own content partnership with Mbappé had already expired at the end of 2024, said it would remove related promotional material. The Global Times also reported that Dior, On and Hublot had taken down Mbappé content from their Weibo pages, and that new users are currently unable to follow his accounts on RedNote or Weibo.

The row reached China’s foreign ministry, where a 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”, according to AP.

LaLiga broadcasts caught in the crossfire

The implications for Spanish football extend beyond one player’s endorsement portfolio. 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 about the striker. Neither LaLiga nor Real Madrid had commented publicly at the time of writing, and no timeline for any potential reinstatement has been indicated.

Mbappé himself has not responded publicly, and The Bridge has also stayed silent. The timing is particularly awkward: just days before the story broke, he was on the scoresheet as Madrid defeated Barcelona 2-1 at Camp Nou in the Clásico.

The “dictator” label has followed Mbappé for some time, partly in reference to the influence he is said to wield at club and international level, and he has addressed it in interviews previously. How he and his representatives choose to respond to this latest episode — in one of football’s most commercially significant markets — will be closely watched.