October 23 – In 2006 a French documentary film, Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait trained 17 synchronized cameras on the French legend during a match between Real Madrid and Villarreal. On October 25 MLS, in collaboration with Apple TV, and TikTok will revisit the groundbreaking piece by putting their entire focus on Argentine, and Inter Miami captain, Lionel Messi.
The feature entitled Player Spotlight: Messi will commence via live stream at 8.45pm EST and stream directly to TikTok via the official TiKTok profiles of @MLS, and @InterMiamiCF handles.
Like the Zinedine Zidane piece, the camera, will follow Messi wherever he goes, however unlike, A 21st Century Portrait, there will not be 17 cameras trained on the maestro. Regardless, the hope is to provide fans of Messi an up-close profile that will capture him in a way that have not seen him before.
A by-product that MLS and Apple TV are banking on is that this free content will encourage fans to sign up for the entire season package through MLS Season Pass which is exclusive to the Apple TV platform.
From TikTok’s perspective, this is the first time the platform will stream an entire game focusing on just one player. With 65% of the platform’s followers on @MLS based outside the United States, soccer is the most important American sport in terms of global engagement.
The play-off match against the winner of the Eastern Conference Wild Card between CF Montreal and Atlanta United will have the honor of meeting Luis Suárez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and of course, Messi (assuming he is fit).
One thing the executives of MLS, Apple TV and TikTok will be hoping to avoid is a repeat of history. In the game that Zidane played he received a red card for participating in a brawl during the last minutes of the game.
With MLS and Apple TV seemingly putting all their chips on Messi, an early exit from the 2024 Audi MLS Cup Playoffs is not in the script.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1734906783labto1734906783ofdlr1734906783owedi1734906783sni@o1734906783fni1734906783