Lionel Messi’s interview with Zane Lowe, which appears on Apple Music and MLS Season Pass, is a sham.
Apple promoted the highly anticipated interview as a look back at his past, present, and future like you’ve never seen before. From the first minute, it looks promising. It’s a sit-down interview in a unique location that we don’t normally see, the home locker room at Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium.
Since Lowe is an expert interviewer who often goes deep into thought-provoking topics with his guests, the anticipation is that we get something different from this conversation with Messi. Instead, we got 23 minutes of banality.
There are so many things wrong with this interview. First, the way it’s edited makes the viewer think that Messi hears Lowe’s question in English and that he completely understands the language so well that he immediately answers the entire question in Spanish. However, it always feels like there’s a translator in the room that we don’t see. That’s very obvious when Lowe ends his question with something irreverent or that makes Lowe smile, and then we get a quick edit where we see Messi smile or laugh in response, but it’s awkward and feels staged because the reaction presumably happens a couple of minutes after Lowe makes the remark.
Presumably, someone in the room translates Lowe’s long questions into Spanish, and then Messi reacts. But the way it’s edited makes it feel very unauthentic. For example, you never see a “two shot” when Lowe finishes his question and Messi immediately answers the question. Instead, it’s always a quick edit to a close-up of Messi answering in Spanish, and English subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen.
My issue with it is that Apple’s editing process makes us want to believe that Messi understands everything in English but prefers to answer the questions in Spanish. That may be the case, but it’s unlikely. It’s perfectly fine if Messi doesn’t understand English in a long-form interview, but it would have been more authentic and transparent if Lowe had explained that upfront. Instead, the editing technique is a distraction throughout the entire 23 minutes of the interview.
Second, the interview doesn’t feel like a real conversation for two reasons. First, the interview feels very scripted as if someone at Apple or MLS supplied Lowe and Messi with the questions beforehand. Every question is a softball question, and there aren’t any deep-dive questions that Lowe is known for. Similarly, there are zero interruptions in the conversation. Normally when two humans speak, one of them may interrupt mid-sentence, and then the conversation feels very fluid. This Lowe-Messi collaboration doesn’t feel like an organic conversation. Instead, it’s Lowe asking a long question. Messi gave his long response. Lowe asked the next question from his list on his iPad. Messi answers, and so on.
Third, I’m sorry Messi fans, but if Dos Equis ever needs a new spokesman for their beers, Messi could be The Most Boring Man In The World. There’s not one enlightening moment in the entire 23 minutes. For example, here’s part of Messi’s response when he was asked about why he came to MLS: “Coming to play at Inter Miami was an opportunity and it attracted me and it was something I wanted to do.” That says nothing. Every answer he gives to every question is vapid.
Fourth and finally, the last time anyone in the United States was allowed to interview Messi was in August 2023. For the last 18 months, Major League Soccer and Messi have carefully prevented the American press from asking him a single question. Now that Messi has been temporarily released from his cocoon, the first person who sits down to interview him is an Apple employee who reads scripted questions. This is not how it works in American sports. Reporters are often granted interviews with the biggest stars.
For instance, this is how Miami Herald reporter Michelle Kaufman described the situation last year: “The biggest stars in NFL teams, even during Super Bowl weeks, are talking to the media. In basketball during the NBA finals, the top players talk to the media. Messi just never has, and he clearly doesn’t have to.”
Let the American soccer reporters ask the questions instead of Lowe who is just taking paychecks from Apple. At least the soccer reporters can ask something meaningful.
One of the most famous sitcoms on television was described by its creators as a “show about nothing.” That description of Seinfeld reminds me of this interview with Messi. What could have been something memorable is instead a carefully orchestrated conversation about a superstar who shares nothing of substance. On the pitch, he’s one of the greatest players ever. Off the pitch, even in his native Spanish tongue, he’s completely uninteresting. And for the usually reliable Lowe to not get anything interesting out of the star, the Kiwi is the biggest disappointment.
The MLS and Apple interview with Messi is disguised as a real conversation, but it feels like just another overhyped marketing piece that delivers nothing. There’s an art to interviews, and this one is a colossal failure.
Photo credit: Zane Lowe on Apple Music
