{"id":3054,"date":"2026-10-29T08:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/mbappe-real-madrid-and-la-liga-face-long-road-to-redemption-in-china\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T08:17:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:17:39","slug":"mbappe-real-madrid-and-la-liga-face-long-road-to-redemption-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/29\/mbappe-real-madrid-and-la-liga-face-long-road-to-redemption-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga face long road to redemption in China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mbappe,<\/p>\n

Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologised for the superstar striker\u2019s comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China won\u2019t be easily or quickly repaired, experts say.<\/p>\n

The France captain, one of the best footballers on the planet, is at the centre of a major row after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former leader Mao.<\/p>\n

Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face photoshopped onto \u201csome guy, think he\u2019s a Chinese dictator\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mao remains officially revered as the hero of the communist revolution and founder of the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/p>\n

He is blamed by historians for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe\u2019s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure or entity to infuriate Beijing.<\/p>\n

Major Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches will be pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV.<\/p>\n

Chinese state media and social media users lined up to lambast Mbappe, although they were left in the dark about what exactly he said.<\/p>\n

China has the world\u2019s second-biggest economy and can be hugely lucrative, and within two days the striker, his club Real Madrid, and La Liga all apologised.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for China\u2019s foreign ministry said the Beijing government took Mbappe\u2019s apology \u201cseriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2018Serious damage\u2019 \u2013<\/h2>\n

So is that the end of the matter?<\/p>\n

\u201cViewed from a calm, objective and emotion-free standpoint, this is clearly a very damaging incident,\u201d Yan Qiang, a veteran sports commentator, told AFP.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt causes serious damage to the image of La Liga and Real Madrid in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the age of the mobile internet things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn apology does not necessarily mean the end of the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better to have an apology than no apology at all, but it\u2019s definitely not the end of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mbappe furore and fallout is not an unfamiliar tale.<\/p>\n

Various overseas sports leagues or players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.<\/p>\n

China effectively cut ties with the NBA in 2019 after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.<\/p>\n

NBA executives said Morey had the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, La Liga immediately distanced itself from what Mbappe said.<\/p>\n

The NBA, which along with football is the most popular sport in China, was wiped from CCTV for more than a year.<\/p>\n

NBA pre-season matches only returned to China last year.<\/p>\n

Australian National University lecturer Debby Chan called the NBA case \u2014 and now Mbappe \u2014 an illustration of China\u2019s consumer nationalism, where online sentiment and state media converge into \u201ca spiral of outrage\u201d.<\/p>\n

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league lost \u201chundreds of millions of dollars\u201d over the split.<\/p>\n

\u2013 No way back? \u2013<\/h2>\n

Spanish football also has a lot to lose.<\/p>\n

A source within La Liga told AFP that China and the United States alone finance the \u201cmajority\u201d of international broadcasting rights, which were valued at 748 million euros ($834 million) for the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n

According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates between 10 and 15 percent of its sales of jerseys and merchandise in China.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports, and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently.<\/p>\n

Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said showing fast and heartfelt remorse was the first step.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will influence the decision on whether to continue the broadcast ban and, if so, for how long,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n

Sports commentator Yan cast doubt on whether the reputation of Mbappe, whose face has adorned drinks bottles and advertising campaigns in China, can ever fully recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudging by commercial sponsorships and big ad campaigns he appeared in during the World Cup, he has a huge influence in China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that influence can\u2019t be sustained there can be no talk of commercial interests, and La Liga and Real Madrid will definitely be badly affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yan said it was \u201cgenuinely hard to predict\u201d what happens next.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short term, I\u2019m certainly not optimistic,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to repair their image and the relationship, their future actions and behaviour will be key.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The post Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga face long road to redemption in China<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologised for the superstar striker\u2019s comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China won\u2019t be easily or quickly… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054","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=3054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}