France, Oct. 29 -- Spanish football officials followed Mbappe in apologising after he described Mao as a "dictator", causing several Chinese sponsors to drop him and prompting state TV to stop airing Spanish matches.

In a clip of a video interview with the French online show The Bridge, Mbappe discusses the memes made about him.

The Real Madrid striker said the funniest one he had seen was a video showing an altered image depicting his face on the blue-suited body of Chairman Mao. "I think he was a Chinese dictator," said Mbappe.

Three companies that used Mbappe's name and image - beverage company Dongpeng, dairy products giant Mengniu and cheese manufacturer Milkground - announced on Tuesday that they were ending their partnerships wi...