Spanish public prosecutors are seeking a one-year prison sentence and a €2 880 fine for a man who mimicked a monkey after Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappé scored in a match last year.
Prosecutors said the accused, "acting with evident contempt for the player’s skin colour," shouted and made "denigrating gestures" targeting Mbappe during a match against Real Oviedo in August.
The gestures, including "simulating primate movements and sounds," were clearly audible to spectators, prosecutors said in a statement.
It was the first incident targeting the French star since his arrival at Real Madrid in 2024, although racist abuse remains common in LaLiga.
Mbappe’s Brazilian teammate VinÃcius Junior has frequently been targeted with racist abuse since joining the club in 2018 and is at the centre of a new controversy.
Vinicius has accused Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him during a Champions League game this month, which the Argentine denied. Albacete fans reportedly chanted racist songs against him in January.
In May 2025, five Valladolid supporters were jailed for a year for racist insults aimed at VinÃcius in 2022.
Four members of an Atletico Madrid ultra group received prison sentences for displaying an effigy of Vinicius in January 2023, though the punishment was later changed to fines.
APPEAL COURT DROPS RAPE TRIAL FOR EX-FRANCE STRIKER BEN YEDDER
Elsewhere, a French appeal court on Thursday overturned the decision to send former France striker Wissam Ben Yedder to trial on rape charges, citing a lack of evidence, judicial sources told AFP.
Last year, the public prosecutor's office in Nice, southeastern France, decided the 35-year-old would stand trial for rape, attempted rape and sexual assault.
But the Aix‑en‑Provence appeals court ruled there was "no basis for prosecuting him," the source said.
"We are very satisfied with the decision. My client has always maintained his innocence," his lawyer Sophia Kerbaa told AFP.
Ben Yedder, who signed in January with Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca, and his brother Sabri were placed under formal investigation in 2023 after accusations made by two teenage women they had met at a party.
Both men had been ordered to stand trial last year.
The former Monaco and Sevilla forward has made more headlines in court than on the pitch in recent years.
In September, he was fined €90 000 by the Nice criminal court for psychological abuse of his wife, from whom he is currently in the process of divorcing.
He was also convicted in Spain in 2023 for tax fraud during his time at Sevilla and received a two-year suspended sentence in France in 2024 for sexual violence in a separate case, which he has appealed.
After leaving Monaco in 2024, Ben Yedder had short playing stints in Iran and Turkey before joining Wydad.
The ruling comes as other high-profile footballers, including PSG's Achraf Hakimi and former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey, face separate rape-related proceedings in France and England.