Lionel Messi’s interview with Zane Lowe, which is displayed on Apple Music and MLS Season Pass, is a shame.
Apple promoted the long -awaited interview as a look at his past, present and future that you have never seen before. From the first minute it looks promising. It is a sit-down interview in a unique place that we normally do not see, home’s dressing room at Inter Miamis Chase Stadium.
Since Lowe is an expert interviewer who often goes deep into thought -provoking subjects with its guests, the expectation is that we will get something other than this conversation with Messi. Instead, we got 23 minutes of banality.
There are so many things wrong with this interview. First, how it is edited, the viewer makes the viewer believe 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. But it always feels like there is a translator in the room that we do not see. It is very obvious when Lowe finishes its question with something irreverent or that gets Lowe to smile, and then we get a quick editing where we see Messi Le or laugh in response, but it is difficult and feels staged because the reaction probably happens a few minutes after the Lowe makes the note.
Probably someone in the room translates long questions into Spanish, and then Messi reacts. But how it is edited makes it feel very unauthorized. For example, you never see a “two shots” when Lowe ends his question and Messi immediately answers the question. Instead, it is always a quick editing to a close -up of Messi that responds to Spanish, and English subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen.
My problem with this 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 is unlikely. It is perfectly good if Messi does not understand English in a long -shaped interview, but it would have been more authentic and transparent if Lowe had explained it in advance. Instead, editing technology is a distraction for a full 23 minutes of the interview.
Secondly, the interview does not feel like a real conversation for two reasons. First, the interview feels very scriptured as if someone on Apple or MLS delivered Lowe and Messi with the questions in advance. Each question is a softball issue, and there are no deep questions that Lowe is known for. In the same way, there is zero outages in the conversation. Normally when two people speak, one of them can interrupt the middle of the sentence, and then the conversation feels very fluid. This Lowe-Messi collaboration does not feel like an organic conversation. Instead, it is Lowe that asks a long question. Messi gave his long response. Lowe asked the next question from its list on its iPad. Messi answers, and so on.
Thirdly, I’m sorry Messi fans, but if Dos Equis ever needs a new spokesman for his beers, Messi may be the most boring man in the world. There is no enlightening moment for a full 23 minutes. Here, for example, is part of Messi’s answer when asked why he came to MLS: “To come to play at Inter Miami was an opportunity and it attracted me and it was something I wanted to do.” It says nothing. Every answer he gives to each question is vapid.
For the fourth and finally, the last time someone in the United States got to interview Messi was in August 2023. For the past 18 months, Major League Soccer and Messi have gently prevented the US press from asking him a single question. Now that Messi has been temporarily released from his cocoon, the first person to sit down to interview him an Apple employee who reads script questions. This is how it works in American sports. Reporters are often granted interviews with the biggest stars.
For example it is so Miami Herald Reporter Michelle Kaufman described the situation last year: “The biggest stars in the NFL team, even during Super Bowl weeks, talk 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 need. “
Let the American football reporters ask the questions instead of Lowe that only takes your paycheck from Apple. At least the football 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 careful orchestrated conversation about a superstar who does not share any subject. On the pitch he is one of the biggest players ever. Outside the pitch, even on his original Spanish tongue, he is completely uninteresting. And for the usually reliable Lowe so as not to get anything interesting from the star, Kiwi is the biggest disappointment.
The MLS and Apple interview with Messi is disguised as a real conversation, but it feels like just another over -skinned marketing that doesn’t deliver anything. There is an art to interviews, and this is a colossal failure.
Photo Credit: Zane Lowe on Apple Music
