Lionel Messi celebrates winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Dec 18, 2022; Lusail, Qatar; Argentina forward Lionel Messi (10) holds the golden ball trophy after winning the 2022 World Cup final against France at Lusail Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports

Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi’s move to MLS’ Inter Miami CF comes with a lot of discussion about Apple. Apple has global rights to all MLS matches under a 10-year, $2.5 billion deal signed last summer, with most available only through their MLS Season Pass product, but some in base Apple TV+, and some sublicensed to other broadcasters. And Apple has already partnered with Messi for a four-part AppleTV+ docuseries, which they announced Monday.

There have also been reports of Apple potentially giving Messi a cut of new MLS Season Pass signups. So Apple is going to be a key part of the Messi discussion on several fronts. And on Wednesday, amidst a bunch of reports of Messi joining Inter Miami (but at a time where many outlets were reporting the deal was not yet finalized), the AppleTV Twitter account commented on their past tweet about the docuseries, and added “Miami” to the list of places Messi had played, but then quickly deleted that. Here’s a screenshot of that from Jeff Rueter of The Athletic:

Since that time, further reports confirming the Messi deal as done have come out. So it doesn’t look like Apple TV was wrong here, just maybe a little early. And they weren’t really reporting this, with many reports already out there before this tweet; there doesn’t appear to have been any KatyPerrysBootyHole insiderdom here. But given Apple’s connections to MLS and Messi (seen above after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup), this tweet was seen by some as confirmation the deal was done, and that’s perhaps why it got pulled. At any rate, it’s interesting to see them tweet and delete that.

[Jeff Rueter on Twitter; photo from Yukihito Taguchi/USA Today Sports]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.