France have just beaten Norway 4-1 in their final World Cup group game and the mood in the changing room is jubilant.
Ousmane Dembele, who scored his first international hat-trick, is warmly congratulated by France coach Didier Deschamps. Encircled by his joyous team-mates, who slap him on the back and clap their hands in celebration, the Paris Saint-Germain forward bashfully rubs the back of his head. “I couldn’t have done it without all of you,” he says.
Standing off to one side, his arms tightly folded across his chest, Kylian Mbappe wears a face like thunder. As he paces across the room to join his team-mates’ huddle, they abruptly fall quiet. The clatter of his studs across the floor ruptures the silence.
Reaching Dembele, Mbappe puts his hand on his team-mate’s shoulder and says: “Good job.” Then, leaning in and lowering his voice to a menacing whisper, he adds: “Never do that again.” A look of horror flashes across Dembele’s face.
The scene — it should be said — is a work of pure fiction.
For starters, France’s players are wearing the wrong kit — a dark blue home strip, rather than the mint green ensemble they wore against Norway. Dembele is wearing the No 11 shirt, rather than the No 7 he has actually sported at the tournament. The players are also, crucially, cartoon characters. Who speak to each other in Japanese.
But the video, produced by an Instagram account specialising in AI-generated, football-themed anime, is an example of a kind of content that has gripped the internet during the 2026 World Cup: memes depicting Mbappe as a ruthless dictator.
Here’s Mbappe pacing out for a pre-match pitch inspection dressed like a decorated army general. Here he is flanked by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and China’s President Xi Jinping, leaning over a map of North Africa and appearing to plan a military assault on Morocco.
Now he’s sitting on a throne in the middle of a football pitch flanked by Dembele and Michael Olise. Or screaming in Deschamps’ face. Or hurling Gianni Infantino over a table. Or with his face superimposed on Osama bin Laden, Joseph Stalin, Chairman Mao. Tastefulness is rarely a concern in the age of AI.
But it is not all make-believe. Some videos depict supposedly ‘dictatorial’ things that Mbappe has actually done at the World Cup: directing ground staff as they attempt to brush water from the pitch during France’s rain-delayed group game against Iraq; instructing referee Michael Oliver to pass his captain’s armband to a team-mate as he comes off in the Norway match; being acclaimed by a bowing Deschamps after scoring twice in the 3-0 win over Sweden.
Didier Deschamps bows down to Mbappe (Mauro Pimentel/AFP via Getty Images)
Enterprising street vendors in New York have been selling ‘Dictator Mbappe’ posters and pin badges, while a Paraguay fan was caught on camera during his side’s last 16 defeat by France in Philadelphia wearing a T-shirt portraying the French skipper in despot mode.
The phenomenon has become so pronounced that Deschamps felt moved to address it himself.
“Lots of people think that Kylian is a dictator, who only thinks about himself,” he told journalists after France’s quarter-final win over Morocco. “(But) he’s exemplary as a captain and in everything that he does on the pitch.”
The memes have provided a curious online backdrop to Mbappe’s historic displays at the World Cup, where he goes into Saturday’s third-place play-off against England seeking to win a second successive Golden Boot and score the two goals he needs to overtake Lionel Messi as the tournament’s all-time leading scorer.
So where did they come from? What do they mean? And is there actually any truth to them?
It all started with a kebab.
The Mbappe dictator craze is thought to have taken off after a legal dispute between the player and the manager of a Marseille kebab shop in March 2024.
Mohamed Henni, who is also an online influencer and Marseille fan, revealed in a series of social media videos that he had received a letter from Mbappe’s lawyer, Delphine Verheyden, instructing him to stop using her client’s name in the description of one of his kebabs. “Round baker’s bread,” the description read, “as round as Mbappe’s skull.”
“Mbappe has turned his name into a dictatorship!” Henni complained in a post to his two million Instagram followers.
The allegation quickly gained traction online, not least because it came when the striker was being accused of wielding undue influence behind the scenes at Paris Saint-Germain.
Mbappe, it was said, had been sweet-talked into signing a new contract in 2022 by the promise of being given a say on player recruitment and coaching appointments. Neymar and Messi were among the players alleged to have been bundled through the exit door with his blessing.
That was on top of the squabbles over penalties, the occasional stroppy reactions to being substituted, the accusation (by Neymar) that Mbappe had been “jealous” of Messi and the repeated stand-offs with the club over his future.
A France fan wears a “Dictator Mbappe” hat at a World Cup game (Reuters)
By the time Mbappe left for Real Madrid in the summer of 2024, he had been phased out of the starting XI by head coach Luis Enrique, and his relationship with president Nasser Al-Khelaifi had hit rock bottom.
“The dictator thing is not wholly inaccurate,” says a source familiar with Mbappe’s time at PSG, speaking anonymously — like others in this article — to protect relationships. “He was very focused on his own statistics. He also had a big say on what the club was allowed to post about him online.
“The club gave him all the power he demanded. Perhaps they created a Frankenstein. But that doesn’t detract from the fact that he’s a brilliant footballer. Maybe many top players are like that.”
The move to the Bernabeu yielded yet more material for content creators eager to depict Mbappe as a merciless tyrant.
Mbappe could not stand Jude Bellingham, the story went. He refused to pass to Vinicius Junior, they said. He got Carlo Ancelotti the sack. Every failed to pass to a team-mate in a promising position or expression of annoyance at a squandered shooting chance was presented as evidence that he was a selfish diva.
When he instructed his team-mates not to form a guard of honour for Barcelona’s players after their victory over Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana in January, the prosecution rested its case.
Sources close to the Real Madrid changing room say Mbappe began to take on more responsibility on and off the pitch in his second season at the club, stepping into the leadership void left by the departures of Luka Modric and Lucas Vazquez.
But things soured after Xabi Alonso was dismissed as head coach in January and replaced by Alvaro Arbeloa. In one notable incident, the Frenchman rowed with and insulted a member of Arbeloa’s coaching staff.
After a poor season concluded with no trophies, it has emerged that there is growing disappointment in Mbappe from the boardroom to the dressing room, with increasingly voluble claims that he is too self-centred.
Responding to criticism of his attitude, Mbappe’s camp previously told The Athletic: “A portion of the criticism is based on an over-interpretation of elements related to a recovery period strictly supervised by the club and does not reflect the reality of Kylian’s commitment and daily work for the team.”
Mbappe had a poor end to the season at Real Madrid (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
The former Monaco striker’s lack of defensive work rate has also been an occasional source of frustration, particularly during Ancelotti’s tenure at Madrid, with a feeling that he sometimes behaved as though defensive responsibilities did not apply to him.
Yet none of that means Mbappe is not an integral figure at the Bernabeu. Indeed, sources insisted that Mbappe remains the cornerstone of the Madrid project and is expected to remain so under new head coach Jose Mourinho.
Jose Maria Martin Ruiz, a 22-year-old content creator who uses the online pseudonym SurNervis, capitalised on the stories about Mbappe in the Spanish sports media in April by releasing an AI-generated song entitled ‘Kylian Mbappe Dictador’.
Taking its tune from an Islamic devotional chant called ‘Ana Maradun’, sung by Saudi singer Abu Ali, it is a satirical take on Mbappe’s supposed influence in the Madrid changing room (sample lyric: ‘At the Bernabeu, I’m the only one in charge’).
The track immediately went viral and has accompanied the majority of the Mbappe-related memes that have populated social media during the World Cup.
“The meme of Mbappe as a ‘dictator’ was already doing the rounds on social media and I thought it had a lot of comic potential,” Martin Ruiz tells The Athletic. “It was an absurd exaggeration of the prominence and influence that some people attributed to Mbappe within football. I thought turning that meme into a sort of epic, over-the-top anthem could be really funny.”
Funny and popular. Martin Ruiz says the song has been played about two million times on Spotify and has been widely shared across social media. “It’s gone much further than I’d ever imagined,” he adds. “But I don’t think Mbappe is a dictator at all. It’s not meant to be a real accusation or a personal attack on him. He’s one of the best footballers in the world.”
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Mbappe has been a central figure for France since making his senior debut as an 18-year-old in a World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg in March 2017.
After starring for the team that powered to glory in Russia in 2018, he cemented his place in World Cup history four years later by top-scoring with eight goals in Qatar and becoming only the second player — after England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966 — to net a hat-trick in a final.
Under Deschamps, who is stepping down as head coach after 14 years at the helm, France as a team have increasingly been built around their talismanic striker.
When former captain Hugo Lloris retired from international football after the 2022 World Cup, Deschamps made the bold decision to hand the armband to Mbappe — then aged just 24 — rather than the vastly experienced Antoine Griezmann.
Griezmann, who made all of his 137 international appearances under Deschamps, admitted that he had found it “hard” to accept the France coach’s decision. After playing only a bit-part role at Euro 2024, the former Atletico Madrid forward announced his international retirement the following September.
With other 2018 stalwarts having retired, and Paul Pogba’s comeback from an 18-month doping ban derailed by injury at Monaco, Mbappe has become the uncontested senior figure in the France changing room.
The only player with a status that comes anywhere close is Dembele, the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner, who has spearheaded PSG to Champions League success in back-to-back seasons. But the pair have been close friends since the age of 14 and Dembele, the resident joker in the France pack, has never been one for the limelight.
Mbappe’s rich vein of goal-scoring form — 16 in his last 17 international appearances, including eight since the start of the World Cup — has only enhanced his authority in the changing room. So too the extra defensive work he appears to have committed to make and a notable selflessness that has seen him lay on three assists at the tournament.
Even before becoming captain, Mbappe was making his presence felt behind the scenes. In 2022, he prompted the French Football Federation (FFF) to review a collective image rights agreement with France’s players because he did not want to be associated with brands such as fast-food outlets and betting companies.
For the World Cup, he led negotiations with the FFF about squad bonuses and the allocation of match tickets for the players’ family and friends. Sources say he regularly addresses the squad before matches.
“He’s the one who does everything, who negotiates the bonuses, who speaks to the federation, to (FFF president) Philippe Diallo, to Didier, who asks if the players can have an afternoon off,” says a source close to the squad. “In some national teams, you get three or four older players who speak to the coach. With France, it’s just him. But he acts in the collective interest.”
Another source close to the changing room adds: “He’s not a dictator at all, as people claim. He’s dragged the team along with him and he takes his responsibilities seriously. He’s a real leader.”
Mbappe is a leader on the field for France (Lars Baron/Getty Images)
Neither the FFF nor a representative for Mbappe responded to a request for comment from The Athletic.
A video clip recently shared online by the FFF unwittingly revealed that the Dictator Mbappe memes have become a source of amusement — and inspiration — for his France team-mates.
Filmed on a plane after France’s win over Sweden in the round of 32, the clip shows Dembele saying: “Someone get ‘Mobut’ for me.” Another player responds by shouting “Mobut!” before Dembele can be heard calling “Kylian!” Moments later, Mbappe appears and the players pose for a photograph.
It has since emerged that ‘Mobut’ refers to the former DR Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko and has been adopted by the squad as a teasing nickname for Mbappe.
(Dembele had previously revealed a surprising interest in 20th-century dictators — including Mobutu — during an interview on his France team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni’s YouTube channel The Bridge in November 2024.)
So what has the man himself made of his new moniker?
“He has a sense of humour and he’ll laugh about it too,” says a source close to the squad. “Ousmane and the others are always looking (at social media) and they send each other funny AI videos and things like that when they come across them.
“The older players joke about it — guys like Ousmane, Ibrahima Konate, Dayot Upamecano — although not every member of the squad can get away with that. There are positive and negative sides to Kylian, like everyone. But he’s not a tyrant or a dictator.”
The memes will get another outing on Saturday when Mbappe leads his team out to face England in Miami. But as he has shown since the beginning of the tournament, he is doing everything in his power to make sure that his World Cup legacy is dictated solely by what happens on the pitch.
Additional reporting: Guillermo Rai
