About

Mbappé Donatello, also known as the Mbappe Ninja Turtle Meme, is a nickname for French football player Kylian Mbappé, chosen in reference to the franchise Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The name has been attributed to him ever since his welcome prank at PSG (Paris Saint-Germain Football Club) at the age of 18. According to his teammates, Mbappe looks like the character. The nickname got online attention, leading to a series of memes with the French player's face.

Origin

Mbappé^[1] joined PSG^[2] in September 2017, with the club eventually paying a record-breaking fee for a teenager, €180m^[3]. During his welcome prank thrown by veteran players, they nicknamed him "Donatello Mbappé" after one Donatello from the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. A video from September 8th, 2017, shows his teammates poking fun at him, which received 971,400 views and 1,757 likes in five years.

PSG teammates bantering Kylian Mbappe for looking like Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 🐸🎤😂 pic.twitter.com/uVYEARaLBt

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) September 8, 2017

Later in the same year, on December 18th, in the middle of a Ligue 1 match between Rennes – PSG, ^[4] three fans entered the field disguised as Ninja Turtles in homage to Mbappé. Twitter^[9] user @philousports posted a video of the event, which received 6,745 likes and 7,694 retweets in five years.

allez c'est bon fin du game pic.twitter.com/JI7ZhcG38x

— Philou (@philousports) December 16, 2017

Spread

Throughout the years, Mbappé got more recognition on the PSG team and established himself as one of the best football players of 2022.^[5]

Leading up to the fame, more memes about his resemblance to Donatello began to be spread on social media, like this June 30th, 2018, montage of the player with the cartoon character posted on Twitter^[6] by user @FraanCarboneli7, which received 2,750 likes and 700 retweets in four years.

Another comparison with the character was posted on July 1st, 2018, by Twitter^[7] user @pyrorivarola and received 11,200 likes and 2,163 retweets in four years.

The TikTok^[8] user @k.mbappe.neyjr posted a video on August 5th, 2021, with clips of the French player showing "evidence" that he is Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The post received 21,800 views and 2,000 likes in one year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References