France's Kylian Mbappé Keeps Giving Orders At The World Cup And Now “Dictator Mbappé” Has Become A Huge Meme

Memes fondly portraying French football player Kylian Mbappé as a dictator have caught on at the World Cup and fans are making the funniest edits online.

The "Dictator Mbappé" meme traces back to 2022, when Mbappé signed a new contract with his former club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), that reportedly gave him an unusual amount of influence over the club, including a say in transfers and lineups.

Fans ran with the idea, joking that Mbappé had effectively become PSG's sporting director.

Since then, even after his transfer to Real Madrid, whenever a teammate gets benched, a coach is fired or a player makes a mistake, fans joke that it happened because Mbappé "ordered."

They edited videos and photos showing Mbappé as a military leader or a historical dictator, supposedly giving orders to everyone around him.

At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, “Dictator Mbappé” struck again.

During France's opening match against Senegal on June 16, “Dictator Mbappé” argued with referee Alireza Faghani after a penalty was waved off.

Less than a week later, during a weather delay in France's match against Iraq on June 22, cameras caught “Dictator Mbappé” walking the flooded pitch and pointing out areas for ground crew to clear.

Then, on Friday, June 26, “Dictator Mbappé” handed his captain's armband to the referee instead of his teammate after being substituted in France's World Cup match against Norway.

Under World Cup rules introduced in 2026, a substituted player has just 10 seconds to leave the pitch, or the incoming player has to wait an extra minute before entering.

So when “Dictator Mbappé” was substituted in the 87th minute of France's 4-1 win over Norway, he gave his captain’s armband to referee Michael Oliver instead of walking across the field to give it to teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni, “ordering” Oliver to deliver to Tchouaméni.

Some fans joked that “Dictator Mbappé” is alive and well as he had enough authority to give the referee instructions, while others said the gesture simply showed he was following the new substitution rules.

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