How a Kebab, an Influencer and AI Turned Kylian Mbappé into the Internet’s 'Dictator'

Scroll any feed for five minutes and you will probably stumble on Kylian Mbappé wearing military regalia, barking orders, and sketching battlefield plans with the kind of stern face normally reserved for penalty kicks. These AI-made images and videos have turned a football star into an authoritarian cartoon, complete with marching anthems and a battalion of saluting extras.

The surprising source of the meme trail leads not to geopolitics but to a kebab. In March 2024 Mbappé threatened legal action after Marseille influencer and kebab shop owner Mohammed Henni used the player’s name for a sandwich. What began as cheeky branding and a social-media jibe escalated into a public tangle.

Henni, who has more than two million Instagram followers, joked that the kebab was served in "bread as round as Mbappé's skull." When the player’s lawyers asked for the reference to be removed, Henni posted the legal notice online, calling the suit "futile" and asking, "Are you not ashamed? You have nothing else to do?"

Once the legal kerfuffle went public the internet did what it does best. Creators used AI to amplify the joke, imagining Mbappé not as a fast forward on the wing but as a hyperbolic commander controlling teammates, referees and even tournaments. The meme also doubled as shorthand for his on-field dominance and reported tensions in dressing rooms amid managerial shifts at his clubs.

Meme compilations piled on. One montage highlights moments framed as "Dictator Mbappé" behavior, including a clip of France coach Didier Deschamps apparently bowing to Mbappé in the 85th minute of a 3-0 World Cup Round of 32 win over Sweden, layered with a mock commentator line along the lines of "General Mbappé at it again."

The jokes did not land with the star. Asked about the caricature, Mbappé responded, "This is a complete farce that you and stupid comedians like you share because you think you are funny." His anger shows a tough reality: legal notices and reputation management can slow an online trend but they rarely kill a meme that AI and imagination have set loose.

The episode is a neat microcosm of modern media. A cheeky sandwich name and an influencer’s post met fast image-generation tools and a culture hungry for jokes about power. The consequences reach beyond laughs: public figures face new reputational risk, influencers learn how quickly a brand stunt can turn into a legal headline, and AI keeps making caricatures harder to control. You can try to take down a kebab name, but you cannot easily take down the internet’s imagination.