Younes Khalifi calls the crisis around Mbappé video “total madness”

Younes Khalifi has described the fallout surrounding Mbappé and a video he made as “total madness”, saying he has no money the player could recover by suing him. The creator says he never imagined his satirical edit would spark a crisis extending beyond football. He now says he feels for the French forward, whose remarks about Mao Zedong brought the video into the centre of a major controversy.

Khalifi posted the edit on his X account in August 2023. It used digital manipulation to place Mbappé’s face over images of Mao Zedong. Khalifi explained that the idea came to him while Mbappé’s future at Paris Saint-Germain was being debated. He followed football, worked as a developer and was interested in deepfake techniques and artificial intelligence for making humorous videos. “Two ideas came together in my head and I made this video,” he said.

The creator said the clip initially attracted little attention in China. It resurfaced on a Tuesday, October 27, and spread widely after Mbappé discussed it on the podcast “The Bridge”. The player said he found the clip amusing: “The meme that made me laugh the most was the one where they took a man, I think he’s a Chinese dictator, and put my head on him.” The controversy then took on a new scale after Mbappé called Mao Zedong a “dictator”.

The consequences went beyond online reaction. Chinese companies suspended their partnerships with Mbappé, while Chinese authorities described the episode as “an act that hurts the feelings of the people”. Khalifi said he was surprised by how events unfolded. “I didn’t expect things to go too far and cause a diplomatic crisis. It’s total madness,” he said. He maintains that he did not mean to offend the Chinese people: “I didn’t want to hurt the feelings of any people; I was simply making humorous videos.”

Khalifi also said he woke up to discover how far the story had travelled. “I woke up and found out I had caused a diplomatic crisis. If you sue me, Mbappé, I’ll be financially ruined. Sorry, I have nothing you can get,” he said. He believes the player is facing excessive consequences for an unintended misstep, pointing to lost sponsors and a potential audience. “I feel sorry for Mbappé,” Khalifi added, calling it sad that the player should have to bear such repercussions.