MADRID/BEIJING – Real Madrid issued an apology on Wednesday after its French forward Kylian Mbappe sparked a fierce backlash over his comments referring to the former Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a dictator.
After apologies from Mbappe and La Liga did not quell the response in China, La Liga President Javier Tebas set up a crisis unit and met with Chinese ambassador Yao Jing.
The backlash highlighted the risks for athletes and brands in the lucrative Chinese market, where satire about Mao, modern China’s founding leader who ruled the country from 1949 until his death in 1976, remains a social taboo.
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