The best Bukayo Saka documentary is also a WhatsApp ad

Bukayo Saka is having an epic year. In just this past month, the English soccer star led Arsenal to its first Premier League title in more than 20 years, then played in a UEFA Champions League final (where the team lost to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties). Next, he’ll lead England into the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Now, a new documentary film directed by the Emmy-award winner Robert Alexander shines another spotlight on the 24-year-old. Bukayo Saka: The Time is Now brings Saka together with an Arsenal club legend, Thierry Henry, for a candid conversation about what it takes to perform at the highest level, the pressure, the resilience required, while making sure still to get joy from the game. We also get a look inside a pivotal moment in Saka’s career, when a WhatsApp message from Henry helped shift his perspective after his missed penalty shot against Italy in the final of the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament. Throughout the film, Henry acts as the Yoda to Saka’s young Jedi, breaking down his motivations, asking him tough questions, and providing the kind of perspective only someone who has already lived that life could. The doc will be streaming on Disney+ in select international markets from June 5, and in the U.S. later this month, along with the ESPN App. The film will also air on Fox in the U.S. on June 7 at 1:30 p.m. EDT, and will be available on Fox One. [Image: WhatsApp] It’s also—and stop me if you’ve heard this one before—a WhatsApp commercial. The film is produced by the Meta-owned messaging app, and is its latest master class in creating brand entertainment that is actually just entertainment. The story is real and the characters compelling, and the product just happens to sit naturally within it all. Here, the story catalyst is the fact that Henry and Saka first connected over WhatsApp. In 2023, for the award-winning film We Are Ayenda, it was the Afghan women’s soccer team’s use of WhatsApp to coordinate their escape from the Taliban. And in last ye