Real Madrid Officially Apologizes to China

Real Madrid, the Spanish club, formally apologized to China yesterday for comments made by its French star Kylian Mbappé, which appeared to joke about former Chinese leader Mao Zedong in a widely circulated video. In a statement issued 24 hours after the controversy began, the Spanish club said, “Real Madrid wishes to apologize to the Chinese people for any offense caused by the recent comments of our player Kylian Mbappé.” The 15-time European champions added, “The club joins the public apology issued by Kylian Mbappé, who expressed his own regret for his words and reaffirmed his respect for the Chinese people.”

The controversial video shows Mbappé saying, “The funniest image I saw of him online was one where his face was placed on that of some man, I think he was a Chinese dictator.” Chinese sponsor companies halted their cooperation with Mbappé, who later apologized for his “inappropriate” remarks. The Spanish La Liga also issued an apology, but Chinese state television suspended broadcasts of La Liga matches.

China stated yesterday that it is taking the French star’s apology “seriously,” as the Real Madrid player struggles to contain a wave of anger on Chinese social media. At a regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, “We take the apology offered by the person concerned seriously.”

Jokes about Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic of China who died in 1976, are considered offensive in China and remain a social taboo. The Real Madrid striker apologized on Tuesday, saying, “My comment was inappropriate, and I now realize that it hurt the feelings of many people in China and among Chinese communities around the world. I apologize to anyone offended by my words.”

The original Mbappé joke has not been reposted on heavily censored Chinese social media platforms, and may have been removed. State media avoided any mention of Mao, limiting their coverage to stating that the player made “inappropriate remarks concerning China.” Nevertheless, the French star continued to face a barrage of criticism from Chinese users on Wednesday. One user wrote on the Weibo platform, “His comments were offensive to China and the Chinese people, so they cannot be translated.”

Meanwhile, the Xiaohongshu platform froze Mbappé’s account, which has more than one million followers, preventing him from gaining new followers. Chinese media reports indicated that global brands such as Dior and Hublot removed content related to Mbappé from their Weibo accounts. A search conducted by Agence France-Presse on the Weibo pages of Dior and Hublot using Mbappé’s Chinese name yielded no results.

Offline as well, it appeared that merchandise associated with Mbappé was being removed from stores. However, products linked to Mbappé, including unofficial jerseys, wool caps, and regular caps, remain available on the e-commerce platform Taobao.

Chinese state media had previously praised Mbappé, describing him as a “football phenomenon” and a “talent.” The striker enjoys widespread popularity among the public in the country, with his image appearing on billboards, on salt-replacement beverage packaging, and across social media platforms.