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| Kung Fu Soccer Pre-Sales Pass 30 Million Yuan as Wild Cristiano Ronaldo Rumour Goes Viral. (Photo: Weibo) |
Before Kung Fu Soccer (功夫女足) has even kicked a football across cinema screens, it has already found itself at the centre of one of the internet's most bizarre talking points. As anticipation builds for Stephen Chow's long-awaited comedy, social media users have been busy inventing their own version of the film, complete with Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe apparently joining forces with the main characters in an over-the-top showdown against the villains. It sounds entertaining, but according to the production team, that's exactly where the story belongs—in the imagination.
The rumours gathered pace after Chinese social media lit up with trending topics discussing the film's growing popularity before release, alongside another hashtag specifically addressing claims that Ronaldo and Mbappe were part of the cast.
The fictional storyline quickly spread across online platforms, with a handful of users creating an entirely imaginary plot in which the two football superstars arrived to help the heroes win battles both on and off the pitch. Creative? Certainly. Accurate? Not even close.
The production team wasted little time shutting the story down. Speaking to Chinese media, representatives gave a direct response, making it clear the circulating claims were "pure fiction".
They firmly denied that either Cristiano Ronaldo or Kylian Mbappe had any involvement with the film and urged audiences to rely on official announcements rather than imaginative online storytelling that somehow escaped the group chat and reached thousands of people.
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| No, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mbappe Are Not in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Soccer |
Instead of international football icons, Kung Fu Soccer features an established cast led by Zhang Xiaofei, Dilraba Dilmurat, Lay Zhang and Carina Lau. The film marks Stephen Chow's return to cinemas as a director for the first time since 2019 and serves as the spiritual successor to his beloved comedy Shaolin Soccer.
This time, the story follows the underdog Emei Women's Football Team, who combine traditional kung fu techniques with football training in an unlikely journey towards Asian Cup glory.
It is exactly the sort of outrageous sporting comedy audiences have come to expect from Chow, even without surprise appearances from Europe's biggest football stars. Industry attention has also focused on the film's ambitious production scale.
Reports from Hong Kong media place the production budget at around 380 million yuan, making it the most expensive project directed by Stephen Chow to date.
Within China's film industry, productions exceeding 300 million yuan remain exceptionally rare, placing Kung Fu Soccer among the country's biggest cinematic investments over the past two years.
What makes the budget even more remarkable is how it has reportedly been allocated. Rather than following the familiar blockbuster formula where marketing consumes a huge slice of spending, industry insiders claim the production shifted much of its promotional budget directly into filmmaking.
In an era where publicity campaigns often account for more than 30 per cent of total costs, choosing to invest heavily in production instead is an unusually bold move. Whether audiences reward that decision at the box office remains to be seen, but it certainly sets the film apart before release.
The strategy appears to be paying off already. Ahead of its 11 July cinema debut, Kung Fu Soccer has generated more than 30 million yuan in advance ticket sales, reflecting enormous audience interest.
Hundreds of thousands of cinema-goers have also marked the movie on ticketing platforms, making it one of the most anticipated domestic releases of the summer. The impressive pre-sales suggest curiosity surrounding the film extends well beyond the online rumours.
Fans and netizens have responded in very different ways. Many found the fictional Ronaldo and Mbappe storyline hilarious, joking that the internet had accidentally written an entirely different blockbuster.
Others praised the production team for addressing the rumours quickly before misinformation spread even further. Some viewers admitted they briefly wondered whether Stephen Chow had somehow pulled off the most unexpected football crossover in cinema history, while others could only laugh at how quickly a made-up plot managed to travel across social media.
Apparently, giving the internet five minutes and unlimited imagination is all it takes to produce a script that nobody actually filmed.
Despite the unusual rumours, excitement surrounding Kung Fu Soccer continues to grow, with audiences eager to see whether Stephen Chow can recreate the magic that made Shaolin Soccer a comedy classic. The football stars may not be appearing on screen after all, but the internet certainly deserves an award for creative fiction. What do you think about the viral rumour? Did it fool you for a moment, or was it obviously too wild to be true?