The key facts

  • A meme depicting Mbappe as Mao Zedong provoked a reaction in China
  • The footballer has already lost two sponsors in the country
  • Ken Early does not expect serious economic consequences for Mbappe

What happened and why the meme provoked a reaction in China

A joke meme depicting Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappe as Mao Zedong has provoked a reaction in China. According to sports journalist Ken Early, co-founder of Second Captains and host of the podcast of the same name,the footballer was probably 'just as surprised as everyone else' — that is, the reaction in China caught him off guard, as it did many others.

The loss of two sponsors and the assessment of the consequences

Although Mbappe has already lost two sponsors in China, Early believes the scandal is unlikely to 'cause serious economic problems' for the French footballer. In his view, the incident rather demonstrates the difficulties that sports leagues and clubs face when trying to 'operate in a global market' under different political regimes, where 'any political statement' can have commercial consequences. It is worth noting that this is the assessment of a single commentator: apart from the fact that two sponsors have walked away, no data on the actual scale of financial losses is available in the report.