Kylian Mbappé slams Paraguay senator's racist remarks after World Cup game

Warning: This story contains racist and graphic language.

He's widely regarded as one of the best soccer players in the world. He's the leading goalscorer in French soccer history. And on Saturday, he led his team to a 1-0 win over Paraguay, securing France a spot in the World Cup quarterfinals.

But that's not why Kylian Mbappé is making headlines this week. Instead, the soccer star is embroiled in a scandal over racist remarks made by a Paraguayan senator that the United Nations Human Rights Office has called "dehumanizing" and "despicable" and have led to an investigation by French prosecutors.

Celeste Amarilla, a senator from Paraguay’s Liberal Radical Party, posted a series of racist comments on X after Mbappé converted the winning penalty in France’s victory over Paraguay on Saturday, mocking the French captain’s origins, upbringing, education and appearance. 

The posts were deleted on X, but one is still visible on her Instagram account. In the post written in Spanish, Amarilla described Mbappé as a "colonized Cameroonian, trying so hard to pretend to be French."

She also called him "bitter, new money, arrogant and ugly," and said Paraguay's players should have slapped him after the match.

In other posts cited by media outlets, Amarilla also reportedly called Mbappé a "brute" who had not learned to write.

"Instead of mother's milk, he sucked on coconuts, and the most educated thing he heard were chimpanzees," Amarilla reportedly posted, according to numerous media outlets.

The Paraguayan government released a statement Monday afternoon, writing in Spanish that Amarilla’s remarks are “contrary to the values and principles that inspire peaceful coexistence and respect for human dignity that our country