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Has French footballer Kylian Mbappé accused President Emmanuel Macron of sexual harassment?
That question might sound a bit strange, but that’s what a supposed Eurosport headline claims, which is being shared on social media with a video reporting the same thing.
“Kylian Mbappé, one of the world’s most famous footballers, has recently accused French President Emmanuel Macron of sexual harassment, and claims it was the reason he left France and moved to Spain,” one post on X with thousands of views said.
Indeed, according to the story linked in the post, Macron’s “inappropriate behaviour” was one of the main reasons why the football star decided to leave Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for Real Madrid in 2024.
The president supposedly inappropriately touched Mbappé, made sexual comments and even offered him luxury gifts such as a Rolex watch.
However, none of this is true — the article was published on a fake, copycat website designed to mimic the real Eurosport, and there are no credible reports anywhere that Mbappé has made any such allegations.
The fake website’s address is euro-sport.fr, whereas the real news outlet carries the address eurosport.fr, without the dash. It’s a small difference designed to trick people, in combination with stealing Eurosport’s visual identity, such as its logo and the layout of its website. Clicking on any other link on the fake article takes us to the real Eurosport page.
The voiceover on the video is very likely AI-generated, due to its slow pace and robotic tone. The voice supposedly belonging to Mbappé also lacks the natural inflexions, breathing and emotional variation of a human.
The false report appears to feed off viral memes depicting Macron as a huge fan of Mbappé. The relationship between the two has at times been the subject of media attention, such as reports of the president urging Mbappé not to leave PSG (which Macron denied), and footage of Macron consoling a visibly dejected Mbappé on the pitch following France’s loss to Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final.
Media outlets and fans suggested at the time that Mbappé appeared emotionally distant, avoiding eye contact and seemingly wishing to be left alone, while Macron insisted on comforting him.
With those instances in mind, many X users have been sharing a clip of the president pulling Mbappé towards him during a French national team photo ahead of the 2026 World Cup, supposedly showing his admiration for the footballer. Macron shared the photo on his own official X account.
Others have linked it to a different meme, which suggests that Mbappé is the true leader of France, or even a “dictator” in some cases, owing to his position as one of France’s top goal scorers of all time.
Either way, the World Cup and its players are likely to be the subject of even more misleading or outright false claims as the tournament kicks off. So enjoy the football, but beware of online disinformation.
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