Kylian Mbappé’s crisis with China has extended to Real Madrid’s commercial interests, while the French forward has been dealt a fresh blow with his account restricted on one of the country’s most prominent social media platforms.
Diario AS revealed that the fallout from the crisis could impact the club’s share of its star player’s image rights, official merchandise sales, and broadcast-related revenues, coinciding with the widening Chinese boycott.
According to the newspaper, Mbappé retains nearly 80% of his image rights revenue under his agreement with Real Madrid, with the club holding a smaller share—an arrangement differing from the traditional 50-50 split applied to many of the team’s other stars.
The termination of cooperation with the Frenchman by companies Dongpeng, Mengniu, and Milkground threatens the revenues shared by both parties, after his comments on a meme linked to Mao Zedong escalated into a major commercial crisis.
The risk is not limited to the player’s personal contracts; Marca estimates that China accounts for between 10% and 15% of Real Madrid’s international merchandise sales, noting that Mbappé’s jersey leads sales figures amid growing calls to boycott official products associated with him.
Furthermore, the suspension of match broadcasts on Chinese state television places additional pressure on the club’s global reach and its partners, while raising concerns regarding the broadcast rights revenues distributed by La Liga to clubs if the crisis persists and impacts commercial agreements.
In a new development, Foot Mercato reported that Mbappé’s account on the Xiaohongshu platform—internationally known as RedNote—was banned from posting content due to community guidelines violations, severely limiting his engagement with an audience exceeding one million followers on the platform.
Mbappé had previously published an apology affirming his respect for the Chinese people and their history, coinciding with an official apology from La Liga and its announcement of direct outreach to local partners, in an effort to contain a crisis threatening both the player’s commercial value and his club’s interests in the Chinese market.
