Let me share context on this Mbappe’s apology to the Chinese people. This is crazier than I thought and Mbappe lost so much sponsorships, but he’ll be fine. First thing to note here, and this is what I always say, footballers are not judged the same way as fans. Fans can say whatever they like most often than not, footballers cannot. This was a harmless joke from Mbappe’s perspective, but just look at how it went sideways. Things are given 200 meanings when it comes out of the mouth of an active footballer. Mbappe was asked about funny nicknames/memes of himself that makes him laugh, and then he said he’s been seeing the meme of “some guy... I think he’s a Chinese dictator”. Frame 1 is Mao Zedong, who is highly revered in China. Although, there are some parts of “external” history that classify him as a dictator, however, in China, they see him as a Revolutionist. He’s also a big part of Chinese history, well respected and regarded. It’s also a case of international mockery, which they classified as a disrespect to the Chinese culture. Frame 2: That is the meme, they replaced Mao’s face with that of Mbappe, hence, the joke “Chinese dictator”. Anyways, the people of China were offended. These are few consequences from that supposed harmless joke from Mbappe; 1. Dongpeng Beverage had Mbappe on their bottles and they ended their partnership immediately with the player. 2. Mengniu Dairy is one of China's largest dairy producers, they terminated Mbappe’s sponsorship deal asap. 3. Milkground (Miaokelanduo) is also a big cheese producer in China, they ended their partnership with Mbappe. 4. RedNote (Xiaohongshu) is a social media platform in China, and even though their partnership with Mbappe ended in 2024, anything that relates to Mbappe on their platform will be scrubbed off. Brethren, it doesn’t stop there, they even banned TV stations from showing La Liga because Mbappe plays there. In fact, Tebas has joined in apologising about an hour ago. This thing go far o, can you see how we as fans, ain’t judged same way as footballers. Just that statement from Mbappe that looked like a joke, see how it quickly escalated from 0-100 and has probably cost him millions of dollars.