# Captains of the World

Captains of the World is a television documentary series produced in a collaboration between Netflix, Fulwell 73 and FIFA+ to give a behind-the-scenes look at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It is a follow-up to the 2022 co-produced series Captains, which documented players' efforts as their teams fought to qualify for the highly anticipated sporting event that took place in Qatar.
The documentary features behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive interviews with captains, prominent players, coaches and more – including Harry Kane, Gareth Bale, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Simon Kjær; and revisits the tragedies and triumphs of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. From Messi's records with Argentina's big win to the biggest upsets of players like Ronaldo, Harry Kane and Thiago Silva, the story covers every angle of the journey.

## Cast

* Lionel Messi
* Kylian Mbappé
* Harry Kane
* Neymar
* Luka Modrić
* Thiago Silva
* Cristiano Ronaldo
* Kalidou Koulibaly
* Tyler Adams
* Gareth Bale
* Simon Kjær
* Romain Saïss
* Gary Lineker
* Lionel Scaloni
* Didier Deschamps
* Louis van Gaal

## Episodes

| No. in series | Title | Featured matches | Original release date |
| 1 | "Great Expectations" | Brazil 2–0 Serbia Argentina 1–2 Saudi Arabia Portugal 3–2 Ghana United States 1–1 Wales | 30 December 2023 (2023-12-30) |
| Messi remembers Maradona, Thiago Silva recalls his battle with tuberculosis and Tyler Adams tries to change the world's view of football in America. ||||
| 2 | "Where Is Messi?" | Denmark 0–0 Tunisia Qatar 1–3 Senegal France 2–1 Denmark Argentina 2–0 Mexico Australia 1–0 Denmark Ecuador 1–2 Senegal | 30 December 2023 (2023-12-30) |
| Simon Kjær discusses Kylian Mbappé's star power and the politics of playing in Qatar. Kalidou Koulibaly reflects on African solidarity at the Cup. ||||
| 3 | "Against All Odds" | Japan 2–1 Spain Costa Rica 2–4 Germany Wales 0–2 Iran Iran 0–1 United States Argentina 2–1 Australia Japan 1–1 (1–3 pen.) Croatia Morocco 0–0 (3–0 pen.) Spain Brazil 4–1 South Korea | 30 December 2023 (2023-12-30) |
| The Round of 16 looms large. Australia aims to take out a god; Maya Yoshida tries to rewrite Japan's legacy in the knockout stage; Morocco makes history. ||||
| 4 | "The Harder They Fall" | Croatia 1–1 (4–2 pen.) Brazil Morocco 1–0 Portugal | 30 December 2023 (2023-12-30) |
| Friction finds Ronaldo benched; Silva braces for backlash when Croatia eliminates Brazil; Morocco captain Romain Saïss discusses the energy in Qatar. ||||
| 5 | "Mind Games" | England 1–2 France Netherlands 2–2 (3–4 pen.) Argentina (Battle of Lusail) Argentina 3–0 Croatia France 2–0 Morocco | 30 December 2023 (2023-12-30) |
| Club friends turn to foes as France faces England; Argentina reopens old wounds for the Netherlands; Luka Modrić's Cup career comes to a close. ||||
| 6 | "The Greatest" | Argentina 3–3 (4–2 pen.) France (2022 FIFA World Cup final) | 30 December 2023 (2023-12-30) |
| With half of the world's population watching and his legacy on the line, Messi takes on Mbappé and France in a final, epic clash of football titans. ||||

## Reception

For the first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 98% approval rating . In the first week of its release, it ranked as the 4th most watched TV show worldwide with 348M hours watched, and ended the first week in Netflix's Top 10 list in over 89 countries.