Overview
- Video footage circulated online showing fans at a Paraguayan San Juan/Judas Kai festival hoist and burn a mannequin bearing Kylian Mbappé’s name and likeness shortly after Paraguay’s 1–0 World Cup elimination by France.
- Local reporters say the act was folded into the festival’s traditional effigy-burning ritual used to symbolically condemn unpopular figures, with the dummy decorated and set alight in a public square.
- An Instagram post credited to Steven Pegelow and other social clips fueled the viral spread and prompted widespread criticism from fans and commentators in multiple countries.
- Around 15,000 people in France reportedly signed a petition seeking an apology to Mbappé, while neither the Paraguayan Football Association, local authorities, Mbappé, nor the French Football Federation had issued formal statements at the time of reporting.
- Observers note the episode revived controversy over prior comments by Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla and earlier effigy incidents involving Mbappé, and it could prompt calls for official investigations and new scrutiny of political rhetoric around sport.