“Millions of people in China hate Mbappé. It’s a punching bag”

Othe last few days have been particularly hard for Kylian Mbappé. The 27-year-old French advanced saw Harry Kane win the Golden Ball on Monday night and in the following hours he found himself involved in a great controversy with China, and he even issued a statement to apologize for a joke about Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China. The theme was also the subject of much debate in France and Christophe Dugarry, a former world champion, had no doubt in saying that it was a “serious miscommunication”. 

“ That's too many miscommunications for a boy who was said to be a communications expert. I think there's already too many, too many, too many. But he is not the only one responsible”, he started by saying Dugarry in the program ‘Rothen s’enflamme’, from RMC Sport. 

“There is its circle nearby and there is also the La Liga. La Liga must send information to the clubs and explain to them the partnership with China, as well as what is or is not allowed according to the players who speak. To defend the League a little, from the moment that there are contracts with Spain, China, Italy, Bangladesh or I do not know who, they must explain what they consist of, why and what may or may not be done in terms of communication, also taking into account the susceptibility of each one,” he said. 

Dugarry has, however, given greater responsibility to the people around Mbappé, saying that responsibility must be assumed. 

“Some news has already come out about Kylian Mbappé’s circle, realizing that things are not going very well right now. And this is more proof of that. When a player, a world star, has a planetary impact at least sentence or comma, if the message has not been reviewed, it is because there is an organization problem. In the structure you must have around you, there are people who have not taken up their responsibilities. It is not possible to miss a message like this”, lamented. 

Despite this, Christophe Dugarry did not fail to express any concern about the impact that the controversy had on Mbappé's contracts with several companies in China. 

“Many people hate him. In China, maybe millions of people hate him. And now there are also people who hate him for apologizing. Now they criticize him for apologizing for the money... A boy who had principles and didn't want to partner with bad countries or businesses. At one point, I had explained that I would never be a partner in a company that was not beneficial to young people or connected to processed food... And, in the end, we learn that he is a partner of three large Chinese companies,” he added. 

“ Everyone's against him, from all sides, and he's a punching bag, poor thing. You've had a terrible day. Even after apologizing, he continues to be beaten”, shot Dugarry. 

What happened? 

In the origin of all this, which even led China to take an official position, is a joke made by Mbappé, in which he commented ‘memes’ that he is targeted and said that the funniest he saw was a montage in which his face appears superimposed on that of a man who identifies as “a Chinese dictator” – the ruler was Mao Zedong. 

Mbappé's words quickly reached the Asian country and several companies tore up the advertising contracts they had with French advanced. In turn, the Chinese public station CCTV decided to suspend the broadcast of La Liga games, leading Javier Thebes to apologize.

Kylian Mbappé would eventually retract, in a statement, saying he was “sincerely sorry” and presenting his “sorry”, admitting to having made “unfortunate comments” about the former leader Mao Zedong. 

“ I apologize to all those who were offended by my words. That was by no means my intention. I have a deep respect for the Chinese people and their history and I feel sincerely sorry”, he said.

“ In a recent interview, I reacted to an image of myself that was part of a montage. The comment was unfortunate and today I understand that it hurt many people in China and the Chinese community around the world,” added Kylian Mbappé.