Real Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappé lost the Ballon d’Or to Harry Kane on Monday night, but the bad news kept coming as by Tuesday morning he had also lost three Chinese sponsors, and La Liga had lost its place on Chinese state television.
The trigger was a short clip linked to the French online show The Bridge. Asked which meme about himself he liked most, Mbappé picked an edit that puts his face on a man he described as a Chinese dictator, though he did not name anyone. The footage has since been taken down, but was recorded by fans across the globe before it was removed.
The version that circulates most widely shows his face on a portrait of Mao Zedong, and satire of Communist Party founding figures can be prosecuted in China as defamation of “heroes and martyrs”.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a routine press briefing that words and actions that hurt the feelings of the Chinese people would be rejected across society, and the commercial response came within hours.
Dongpeng Beverage, also known as Eastroc, ended its deal with immediate effect, citing zero tolerance for behavior that offends national sentiment. Its Bu Shui La electrolyte drink had carried Mbappé’s face on bottles and on advertising across Chinese cities through the summer World Cup. Mengniu, China’s largest dairy producer, issued an almost identical statement. Cheese maker Milkground followed.
Social platform RedNote said its own content partnership with Mbappé expired at the end of 2024 and that it was removing related material. The Global Times reported that Dior, Hublot and On had also taken Mbappé content off their Weibo pages, and that new users could no longer follow his accounts on RedNote or Weibo.
What this could cost Mbappé
Forbes estimates Mbappé will earn $100 million this season, made up of $70 million on the field and $30 million from endorsements and business interests. That puts him third on Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid soccer players, published earlier this month.
None of the Chinese companies disclosed what they were paying him, so the size of the direct hit to that $30 million is not yet clear.
The larger exposure sits with On. Mbappé ended a 20-year relationship with Nike this year to sign with the Swiss brand, and Forbes reports that he took an equity stake as part of the deal. On had not commented publicly by Tuesday, but China remains a major market for the emerging sportswear brand. With equity in the company, his standing in China is no longer only a question of appearance fees.
What it costs La Liga
The Paper, a Shanghai outlet cited by the Global Times, reported that China Media Group, CCTV’s parent organization, had suspended broadcasts of matches involving La Liga and Mbappé from Monday night, along with his advertising and video content.
The CCTV deal was already a short one. LaLiga signed with China Media Group in 2024, its first agreement with the state broadcaster in nine years, according to SportBusiness. Those non-exclusive rights run from 2024/25 through this season, with matches shown free on CCTV-5+.
The longer contract is digital as in early August, La Liga president Javier Tebas signed a deal in Beijing making Migu, the streaming service owned by state carrier China Mobile, the league’s exclusive new media partner in mainland China through 2029-30. Migu shows all 380 matches a season on a freemium model which Tebas used to describe China as a strategic market for the league when the deal was announced.
Migu is also state owned, but whether it follows CCTV is the question La Liga will be watching this week.
A second clash for Real Madrid in just over two months
This is Real Madrid’s second dispute in China since the season started. On August 30th, the club posted a photo of a minute’s silence at the Bernabéu for flood victims “in Nepal and Tibet”. The Global Times called for the wording to be changed to “China’s Xizang,” and the club deleted the post on September 3rd without explanation.
It follows a February social media post by defender Dean Huijsen, for which the club apologized on his behalf in a statement on Weibo, carried by Managing Madrid.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com