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Soccer star Kylian Mbappé apologized for comments in which he apparently referred to Mao Zedong, the founding leader of Communist China, as a dictator, after facing backlash and losing brand deals with three different Chinese companies.
“My comment was ill-judged, and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities around the world,” Mbappé said in a statement Tuesday.
“I apologize to everyone my words have upset,” he said. “This was absolutely not my intention. I have deep respect for the Chinese people and their history, and I am sincerely sorry.”
Mbappé’s face appears in ads across China, from subway stations to inside elevators.
Beverage maker Dongpeng, dairy giant Mengniu and cheese maker Milkground said in similarly worded statements Tuesday that they were ending agreements with the soccer star, each saying they oppose “any words and actions that hurt national sentiment.”
The companies did not specify what prompted their decisions, but they released their statements after a clip that appeared to show Mbappé being interviewed ahead of going on the French online talk show “The Bridge” circulated on X.
In the video, Mbappé is asked about his favorite meme of himself, and the soccer star replies that it was “a video someone made of a guy … I think he was a Chinese dictator” before the video shows an altered image depicting Mbappé’s face on the blue-suited body of Mao Zedong.
Soccer fans online jokingly call the star — who’s said to overshadow many of his teammates and even the teams he plays on — a dictator, and memes showing him as Mao or other autocratic leaders are widely circulated.