French star Kylian Mbappé of Real Madrid sparked major controversy on social media after posting an image from the video assistant referee (VAR) technology showing the moment his goal was disallowed in his team’s match against Mallorca in La Liga.

Yesterday, Real Madrid secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over visiting Mallorca at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in the third round of La Liga. The match featured several refereeing decisions that ignited heated debates in local media after VAR disallowed three goals for the royal team.

Among the three goals, two by Mbappé were ruled offside, and one by Turkish player Arda Güler was canceled due to a handball before the ball was sent into the net.

However, the first incident involving Mbappé drew significant attention. The French star scored by placing the ball past Mallorca goalkeeper Leo Román after receiving a brilliant pass from Englishman Trent Alexander-Arnold deep inside the visiting team’s defense, just seven minutes into the game.

Mbappé celebrated the goal before referee José María Sánchez Martínez decided to cancel it after consulting VAR, citing a “very tight” offside call according to the Spanish newspaper Marca.

Mbappé shared the VAR clip via Instagram Stories on his official account without any comment, which the newspaper interpreted as a “veiled message expressing his dissatisfaction with the referee’s decision.”

The image showed the offside line barely crossing a small part of Mbappé’s head and a portion of his arm beyond the last Mallorca defender, leaving controversy over whether the offside was called based on the head or the arm.

Real Madrid fans in the Santiago Bernabéu stands reacted with a mix of shock and anger, openly expressing their frustration with the refereeing decisions by chanting protests against the referees’ technical committee, as confirmed by the same newspaper.

Meanwhile, famous Spanish journalist Tomás Roncero, known for his Real Madrid bias, expressed surprise at the goal’s cancellation despite admitting it was “by just a hair.”

Roncero believes such decisions “destroy football,” as he told the Spanish network Cadena SER.

The well-known VAR analysis account “Archivo VAR” posted the VAR image on the X platform without any explanation or comment, possibly indicating the difficulty of the call.

It is worth noting that Mbappé failed to continue his scoring streak against Mallorca, leaving his La Liga goal tally at three since the new season began, with one goal against Osasuna in the first round and two against Real Oviedo in the second.