Messi to make his Super Bowl debut, set to appear in Michelob Ultra ad

MIAMI (AP) — Lionel Messi has won futbol’s biggest prize. He’ll now be part of football’s biggest day.

The Inter Miami star, World Cup champion and global soccer icon will headline a Super Bowl ad for Michelob Ultra, the brand announced Thursday. A teaser to what will be a 60-second spot shows Messi ordering a beer as he walks up to a bar, and his reaction when the tap stops pouring.

It’ll be Messi’s first Super Bowl commercial and adds to his massive advertising reach in the U.S. and globally. The game is on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

His partnership with Michelob Ultra's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, began in 2020. The Super Bowl spot is part of the beer’s sizable investment in soccer. The ad follows the brand being revealed as the global beer sponsor of this summer’s Copa America.

It’s also expected that Ultra will partner with the men's World Cup when it comes to the U.S., Canada and Mexico in 2026 — when Messi and Argentina will aim to defend their title.

Messi is a marketing dream with giant brands such as Adidas, Gatorade, Hard Rock International, Royal Caribbean and Apple TV all involved with him. His social media footprint is enormous, with nearly 500 million followers on Instagram.

Anheuser-Busch routinely spends millions on Super Bowl ads; last year's game brought an asking price of as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot, with companies paying it to be on U.S. advertising's biggest stage and with hopes of reaching an expected audience of more than 100 million.

The beverage giant had a Michelob Ultra spot as part of last year's Super Bowl lineup, also with a sports theme — it was set at Bushwood Country Club, the fictional country club in “Caddyshack,” and starred tennis great Serena Williams, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current TV analyst Tony Romo, Miami Heat standout Jimmy Butler, golfer Rickie Fowler, soccer player Alex Morgan and boxer Canelo Alvarez.

Messi has more than 800 goals in his career for club and country, making him one of the greatest scorers in the sport’s history. He scored twice in the most recent World Cup final in 2022 that Argentina won against France on penalty kicks.

Messi is a four-time Champions League winner, an Olympic gold medalist and has been part of 44 trophy wins overall, considered the most in soccer history.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer