{"id":13802,"date":"2026-11-10T05:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T05:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/10\/konate-defends-mbappe-following-ballon-dor-heartbreak-china-controversy\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T05:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T05:15:52","slug":"konate-defends-mbappe-following-ballon-dor-heartbreak-china-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/10\/konate-defends-mbappe-following-ballon-dor-heartbreak-china-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Konate Defends Mbappe Following Ballon d&#8217;Or Heartbreak, China Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>France defender Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 has rallied behind Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, declaring his international teammate to be in high spirits ahead of his return to national team duty under manager Zinedine Zidane.<\/p>\n<p>Mbapp\u00e9 rejoins Les Bleus for their upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures against Italy and Turkey after missing the last three matches through injury.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Also:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.completesports.com\/afcon-2027q-tanzania-lose-two-key-stars-ahead-of-super-eagles-clash\/\">AFCON 2027Q: Tanzania Lose Two Key Stars Ahead Of Super Eagles Clash<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>His return comes during a turbulent stretch that saw him narrowly lose the Ballon d\u2019Or to England striker Harry Kane and face severe backlash over a controversial remark regarding former Chinese leader Mao Zedong.<\/p>\n<p>During a deleted segment from the French show The Bridge, Mbapp\u00e9 joked about a viral meme depicting his face merged with \u201ca Chinese dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The comments triggered immediate commercial fallout, with major Chinese sponsors severing ties and state broadcaster CCTV suspending La Liga match broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read Also:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.completesports.com\/2027-u-23-afconq-dr-congo-begin-training-ahead-olympic-eagles-showdown\/\">2027 U-23 AFCONQ: DR Congo Begin Training Ahead Olympic Eagles Showdown<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite the off-field noise, Konat\u00e9 insisted his Real Madrid teammate remains fully focused on football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s in a very good frame of mind; you can see that from his recent matches\u2014he\u2019s been decisive,\u201d Konat\u00e9 told reporters on Monday. \u201cHe\u2019s absolutely vital for us in Madrid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Complete Sports<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>France defender Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 has rallied behind Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, declaring his international teammate to be in high spirits ahead of his return to national team duty under manager Zinedine Zidane.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}