When is the release date of the Apple TV+ Messi documentary in the United States?

No player in the history of the Beautiful Game has won as much as Lionel Messi. The Argentinean has an enviable and unmatched honors list - 44 titles between club and country. In fact there are only two competitions that he has played in and hasn’t won - the Coupe de France and MLS Cup. And you never know that might change sometime soon.

Despite his achievements, to be truly regarded as the game’s legendary figures, if not the best player ever to have stepped out onto a football pitch, he needed to win the greatest prize of all - the World Cup. Pelé has done it three times, Maradona and Beckenbauer just once but all of them had won the one trophy Leo lacked.

Messi has starred in five World Cups with Argentina, reaching the quarter finals in 2006 and 2010 and losing the 2014 final to Germany. When the Albiceleste were dumped out at the Round of 16 stage at Russia 2018, it looked like Messi might never be a world champion.

His (and Argentina’s) moment finally arrived in Qatar in 2022. The road to World Cup glory was captured on film for a new Apple TV+ documentary series, shot in Paris, Qatar and Argentina and executive produced by Tim Pastore, Patrick Milling Smith, Brian Carmody, Matt Renner, Jenna Millman and Juan Camilo Cruz.

Following last year’s docuseries ‘Messi comes to the United States’ Apple TV+ release Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend - a four episode documentary that charts Argentina’s 2022 World Cup campaign and features interviews with the player himself and team mates past and present including Sergio Agüero, Emiliano Martínez, Rodrigo De Paul, Ángel Di María and head coach Lionel Scaloni.

What is the documentary about?

Like its namesake about the Argentine’s arrival to MLS, the new Apple TV+ documentary will consist of four episodes of approximately one hour in length: The Last Cup, We Can Dream Again, The Weight of a Nation and Redemption. The story focuses on Messi’s journey in international football, from his fateful debut with Argentina, where he was sent off, through the painful defeats in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 and 2016 Copa América, his premature retirement in 2017 then savoring glory in the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 World Cup.

The series will feature first-person testimonies from some of the most important figures in Argentina, from the past to the present day, from team mates to coaches, competitors, fans and commentators such as Men in Blazers’ Roger Bennett and the BBC’s Gary Lineker. The documentary also feature exclusive footage of the Argentina camp during their first days in Qatar.

Messi explained: “It would be the ultimate experience to win a World Cup and to be able to close out my career in that way. I’ve daydreamed about it after many years of fighting for it. I made a million possibilities of what could happen… the first match, the Round of 16, the quarter finals, the semi-final and the final. I’m also going to live it as something special, because it’s the last one. To finish my last year winning a World Cup would be the dream ending.”

When is the documentary released?

As confirmed by Apple TV+, all four episodes of the documentary will air on Wednesday 21 February. As usual, the series will have weekly chapters that will premiere in the early hours of the United States (normally around 4 a.m. ET / 1 a.m. PT).

According to the company’s press release: “Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend” highlights the thrilling story of the planet’s top living athlete, his loyal supporters across Argentina and those who made the pilgrimage across the globe to witness his epic World Cup win. The official trailer and teaser can be watched here.

Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, as well as tv.apple.com.