Real Madrid star Kylian Mbappé has opened up on the "dictator" nickname some fans hang on him across social media. He admits it can be funny, but there's a darker edge to it too, given the ties between that label and figures who inflicted terrible harm through history.
Mbappé made the comments in an interview with "France Football" magazine, whose excerpts the publication is releasing one after another. The player used the platform to address the nickname handed to him by some followers online.
Mbappé said: "The matter is partly amusing, because it gives the impression that for some people it is just a joke. But it also carries a less light-hearted side, because we know the harm that this kind of person has caused throughout history."
"To be compared to people who kill others, or who caused the misery of millions and millions of people... I don't think I have ever done anything like that in my life at all," he added.
He went on: "There is a mix of things. On one hand, I know it is said in jest and does not reach that extent, but at times it reveals a lack of political and human awareness in people. Ousmane Dembélé is different. He discovered the matter on social media! He just laughs."
That last line points to the running joke Ousmane Dembélé shares with Mbappé himself.
The Paris man once playfully dubbed Mbappé "Mobutu", a nod to the dictator who ruled Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for 25 years.
You can discuss the topics and news in more depth in the "Kooora" forums