00:00Kylian Mappé, the captain of the French national team and one of the sport's global superstars, is in hot water.
00:06What got him there is his unfortunate nickname on social media, The Dictator, over his huge influence on and off
00:14the pitch.
00:15While he was on a French talk show, the Real Madrid forward was asked about the funny online memes about
00:21him.
00:21He then said, the one that makes him laugh most is this picture of a man he thinks is a
00:27Chinese dictator.
00:28Those who didn't laugh were Chinese officials.
00:31Mbappé found himself quickly at the center of a diplomatic storm and a fierce backlash.
00:37Sensing that something was wrong, Mbappé then issued the following apology.
00:42My comment was ill-judged and I now understand that it hurt many people in China and in Chinese communities
00:48around the world.
00:49I apologize to everyone. My words have upset. I'm sincerely sorry.
00:55Is that the end of it?
00:57Let's bring in Irish sports journalist and football expert, Ken Early.
01:02Good morning and good to see you, Ken.
01:04Morning, good to see you too.
01:06So, is the lesson learned here that when you're a football star, never joke about leaders who died half a
01:12century ago?
01:16Well, it's not a rule that many players have actually broken before now.
01:22And I'm sure Kylian Mbappé was as surprised as anybody to discover that his comments made some six months ago
01:28had caused such offense in China.
01:32But it's not the first time that something along these lines has happened.
01:36And the German player, Mesut Ozil, who played for Arsenal at the time in 2019, posted on social media about
01:44the plight of the Uyghur people in China.
01:47And unlike what Mbappé has done, his was actually direct political criticism of China over what's happening with the Uyghur
01:55people there.
01:57And in that instance, well, they said, okay, Arsenal won't be on Chinese television anymore.
02:03And Mesut Ozil will not be mentioned on Chinese social media.
02:06And Arsenal, his club, quickly issued a response distancing themselves, saying this is his opinion, not ours.
02:12And Ozil was in fact sold not long after that, although I don't think it was for that reason.
02:16But these types of things have happened before.
02:20And Ken, at least three Chinese companies have already cut ties with Mbappé.
02:23How much money could this controversy cost him?
02:26And how serious is the damage to his global brand?
02:29I don't think it's going to cause serious economic problems for Kylian Mbappé.
02:36Obviously, nobody wants to lose sponsors.
02:38I did see that Javier Tebas, who is the head of La Liga in Spain, went to visit the Chinese
02:45ambassador in Spain to apologize,
02:48which suggests that he at least sees it as potentially a problem if, you know, Real Madrid games aren't going
02:53to be shown on Chinese television.
02:55Now, I'm sure they will be.
02:56What usually happens is there's an angry response from China and then there's an institutional apology and then things get
03:05smoothed over.
03:06But it sort of shows this situation.
03:10Clubs, sports leagues want to market to a global marketplace.
03:13But that global marketplace is divided into different political regimes.
03:17And increasingly, political statements of any kind, and Mbappé's wasn't even a political statement.
03:23He was simply laughing at a meme someone had presented to him, which had some political, satirical political content,
03:31that any political statement is going to cause commercial issues.
03:36Well, I think people will say anything and some people will remain affected.
03:37Anyway, we need to be with your warriors이시, now andか some people will be seeing that the truth.
03:37So is what they saved their yet.
03:37allen crew.
