Fake news site links Kylian Mbappé's departure from PSG to Emmanuel Macron
- Published on June 11, 2026 at 20:06
- 4 min read
- By Cintia NABI CABRAL, AFP France
- Translation and adaptation Stevie ROSENFELD, AFP USA
In the runup to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, social media users spread an article which alleged France's national football captain, Kylian Mbappé, had revealed his 2024 transfer from Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) to Real Madrid was catalyzed by harassment at the hands of French President Emmanuel Macron. But the article was published on a fake website imitating French media outlet Eurosport while usurping the identity of one of its journalists, bearing many of the hallmarks of a pro-Russian disinformation operation.
"Breaking: Kylian Mbappé, one of the world's most famous and successful footballers, accused Emmanuel Macron of sexual harassment and claimed it was the reason he left France for Spain," claims a June 6, 2026 X post.
In the attached video, a voice resembling Mbappé's says in French: "At a certain point, this unwanted attention became unbearable. I knew the only way out was to leave PSG and get out of France," with "PSG" repeatedly mispronounced.
The same claim spread across platforms in English and Dutch, while posts in French wracked up over 800,000 views.
Mbappé was transferred to Real Madrid in 2024 and in his first public statement after his move, he said he felt "liberated and relieved" by the switch from PSG.
But, AFP did not find any reliable coverage or statement from the player implicating the French president.
The recent posts refer to an article posted June 4, 2026 on the website "euro-sport.fr," which upon first glance could be the home for the French media outlet Eurosport (archived here).
However, a spokesman for Eurosport confirmed to AFP on June 10 that the article about Mbappé and Macron was fake. The outlet also issued a statement confirming that the website's "contents are entirely fabricated and have no connection with Eurosport" (archived here).
Eurosport journalist Martin Mosnier (archived here), whose name is attached to the fake Mbappé article, also told AFP that he took no part in its publication.
Fake website
The "euro-sport.fr" site appears to engage in "typosquatting," where a page uses a similar name to imitate a website well known to the public (archived here). Several elements point to it not being the official Eurosport site, including the use of "PDT" instead of "GMT," varied video graphics and a warning at the top of the page about the lack of a secure connection.
The site attributes multiple articles to Mosnier, but he said he did not write these pieces either.
"There's such a degree of mimicry that it's really disturbing for someone who never goes on eurosport.fr or doesn't know our editorial line," he told AFP June 9.
A search of the Whois inventory of website domain names reveals the "euro-sport.fr" site was created on May 31, just a few days before the publication of the fake article (archived here). It also indicates that the site's last update was June 5.
"It's frankly worrying, because today it's also attacking what we have to say, our profession, the credibility of what we do, of what we report. And if tomorrow this kind of fake news multiplies tenfold, it's going to be difficult to exist and to maintain legitimacy," Mosnier added.
AI-generated audio
The video accompanying the posts includes various authentic pictures of Mbappé and Macron, including a photo where the president appears to comfort the footballer after a previous World Cup loss.
But the voices in the clip of the narrator and the one attributed to Mbappé are stilted and mechanical, characteristics frequently observed in artificially generated content.
The InVID-WeVerify verification tool, co-developed by AFP, detected that the audio was "very likely generated by AI."
Storm-1516 network
AFP previously debunked multiple fake reports targeting Macron and his wife which appeared on websites impersonating legitimate outlets and reporters.
These impersonation methods evoke pro-Russian disinformation campaigns which regularly imitate real newspapers.
A French government source told AFP the Mbappé-Macron claim was "almost certainly" attributable to the pro-Russian operation Storm-1516 (archived here), noting the content was shared by accounts that had taken part in previous disinformation campaigns.
Darren Linvill, the co-director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, uncovered Storm-1516 after identifying Russian attempts to persuade voters in the 2024 US election (archived here). During that campaign, AFP debunked numerous claims of ballot destruction and illegal voting linked to the operation and the US government connected Storm-1516 to false sexual assault allegations levied against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation here.
Copyright © AFP 2017-2026. Any commercial use of this content requires a subscription. Click here to find out more.
Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.
Contact us
