Kylian Mbappé had barely started posing for photographs with children at France’s Clairefontaine training base when one of them cut in. “Le dictateur est arrivé,” the boy called out, meaning “the dictator has arrived.”
Mbappé laughed and kept smiling through the moment, according to Ouest-France. Footmercato said the exchange came mid-photo at the open session, with the forward amused rather than irritated as he continued the shoot with another young fan.
How a talk-show line became a nickname
The nickname was born on a French talk show. On The Bridge, Mbappé was shown a meme of his own face edited onto Mao Zedong’s and called the figure a “Chinese dictator”, according to Time. The segment had been filmed in March but was only posted in October, and Chinese social media lit up within hours.
The commercial fallout arrived the next day. Dongpeng Beverage Group and Mengniu, China’s largest dairy producer, both terminated their deals on 27 October. Shanghai Milkground Food Tech soon followed, Time reported, with the combined contract value estimated at around €6.7m.
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Dongpeng said it “firmly opposes and has a zero-tolerance policy towards any behaviour that offends national sentiments”, Al Jazeera reported. Mengniu used almost identical wording. CCTV, China’s state broadcaster, suspended its LaLiga coverage the same week.
Mbappé apologized the same day. His comment had been “ill-judged”, he said in a statement cited by Time, adding that he had “deep respect for the Chinese people and their history”.
A costly nickname that will not go away
Footmercato noted that the diplomatic row with China appears to have cooled in the weeks since. The nickname has not. Tuesday’s clip traveled quickly on French social media, keeping the “dictator” label attached to Mbappé on a day when he had hoped to talk about football.
France play Italy on 12 November and Turkey on 15 November.
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