Sports Talk

Brands dropped Mbappe in days. Do these deals ever come back?

The speed of this blew my mind! Mengniu, Shanghai Milkground and Eastroc all ended deals after the podcast remark, and then the apologies came: Mbappe, La Liga, Real Madrid, even Tebas meeting China's ambassador!

The GONOM post says we don't know yet if the brands will return. So my question: has anyone seen a case where Chinese sponsors came back to an athlete after a backlash like this? Or is it usually permanent?

I'm also curious how this compares to brands in Europe or India. Here, I feel an apology is sometimes enough after a few months. Is China different because the taboo is stronger, like The Japan Times explained?