Real Madrid Distances Itself From Mbappé as La Liga Apologizes to China
Three days into the Mbappé controversy, Real Madrid calls the remarks personal and its sponsorships intact, while La Liga's president apologizes, writes to China Media Group and meets China's ambassador — and state media answers with 'watch what he does.'
Three days after a clip of Kylian Mbappé reacting to a meme about himself set off a nationwide boycott, the institutions around the French striker are choosing different exits. Real Madrid has built a firewall. The club told the Spanish daily OK Diario that the remarks were the player's personal expression, that he has since clarified and apologized, and that its Chinese commercial partners "understand the context": sponsorships continue as normal, including a global partnership with the robot-vacuum maker Roborock announced in January. One summary of the club's position on Weibo was liked more than 37,000 times.
La Liga, whose Chinese broadcast audience underwrites much of that cooperation, went the other way. President Javier Tebas apologized publicly to Chinese fans, wrote a formal letter of apology to China Media Group, the state broadcaster, and met Yao Jing, China's ambassador to Spain, "to seek solutions that help us weather this storm", according to China Newsweek. His statement named what the league has at stake: a strategic cooperation agreement with China's professional-league federation that runs to 2029, and broadcast ties with CMG. "China is now, and will remain, a strategic partner of La Liga," he said.
On Monday evening the program at the center of the clip, The Bridge, added its own apology in French and English. The video, it explained, was behind-the-scenes footage from an interview recorded in April, in which Mbappé had been invited to respond to memes circulating about him; it "deeply regretted" the offense the clip caused to people in China and around the world.
The apologies have not stopped the purge from widening. eFootball's Chinese service said it had halted all promotion of the player and stopped producing his in-game cards: "Sport can cross borders, but respect must not be absent." Fan Zhendong, the table tennis world champion who once attended El Clásico disguised as an ordinary Madrid supporter, quietly unfollowed him. On Running, the Swiss sportswear brand that signed Mbappé only in September, has so far left his content standing — a choice Baidu users are debating under a trend that asks, bluntly, whether Mbappé or China matters more to the brand.
The China Football Association, which demanded a formal public apology from both player and club, has received one only from the player. Real Madrid's distinction — personal words, separate personal endorsements with Mengniu and Eastroc Beverage, untouched club sponsorship — has been read in China less as reassurance than as positioning. His apology itself, issued Monday in three languages, arrived after the brands had already gone.
State media have kept score all day. People's Daily's commentary called the affair a mirror for public figures — "no brand wants to be in the company of a negative asset" — while the Zhejiang Propaganda Department, an influential official account, titled its essay "Mbappé Doesn't Deserve It". China News Service compressed its verdict into a single character: 呸 — "Bah!"
China Media Group, which pulled La Liga matches from its schedules on the first day of the controversy, acknowledged the pile of apologies with a formula of its own: 听其言，观其行 — listen to what he says, watch what he does.