The great Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi published a photo with his father, Jorge Messi, who died last Saturday at the age of 68, along with an extensive message in which he expressed his pain at his departure, “Leo” told what it was like to play a World Cup for the first time away from him and questioned whether he can continue playing soccer for much longer.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you, I don’t know how to continue. I only played football and now I have quite a few doubts that I’m going to continue doing it for much longer. You were by my side from the beginning, there was so little left until the end. Why didn’t you last that little bit longer and we finished together?” wrote Messi, 39, on the social network Instagram.
The MLS Inter Miami player landed on Saturday night with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their children in Rosario, his hometown, where on Sunday morning he said goodbye to his father’s remains in an intimate ceremony held at the private El Prado cemetery.
Almost a month before the final of the 2026 World Cup between the United States, Mexico and Canada, in which Argentina lost 1-0 to Spain, the notable captain of the Albiceleste team revealed: “You asked me so much to play in the last World Cup and days before it started was when you got the worst.”
“Every time a game ended, I waited and missed your message. That’s when I realized that the situation was really ugly. Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time to watch a game,” Messi revealed.
The man from Rosario regretted not having been able to bring his father a new drink. “I couldn’t, my legs didn’t give me any more. This time I tried to go against my physique, but I couldn’t. I could never feel good,” he said.
He highlighted, however, the enjoyment of the Argentina team in each game and told his father: “Once again, you were right: I had to be there and play it.”
“I still can’t believe that you’re gone. I don’t fall, or rather, I don’t want to fall. It’s very difficult for me to imagine that I’m not going to see you anymore, that we’re not going to talk anymore. I know that you were suffering and that it’s the best, but you left very soon. We still had a lot to enjoy together,” he said.
Jorge Messi was the brain behind his son’s football career as the representative and administrator of the multimillion-dollar family financial structure, which has not stopped growing since the two arrived to try their luck at Barcelona in 2000.
“You were a father, a friend and a representative. You were always the person you had to be at all times and you were never wrong about anything,” said ‘La Pulga’.
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Inter Miami consoles Leo
Inter Miami of Major League Soccer (MLS) expressed its support for its captain Leo Messi for the recent death of his father, Jorge, at the age of 68. “Our hearts are with our captain, Leo, and the entire Messi family,” Inter Miami wrote on their X account.
The Florida club has been competing in the Leagues Cup, an event in which, in the absence of official confirmation, Messi will not be present.
Jorge Messi died in the early hours of this Saturday night in Rosario (province of Santa Fe), according to the Centro sanatorium of that city where the 68-year-old businessman was admitted.
“Sanatorio Centro, through its medical director, fulfills the painful duty of reporting the death of patient Jorge Messi, 68 years old, which occurred today, at 2:00 a.m.,” the clinic published with the signature of Dr. Carlos Mackey.
“We accompany his family and loved ones in this difficult time, expressing our most sincere condolences. In compliance with current regulations on patient data protection, and out of respect for the privacy of the family, no further details will be provided about the medical circumstances of the death,” the official text added.
Jorge Messi, born in 1958 in the Argentine province of Santa Fe, was decisive for Lionel’s career, for whom he was the representative and administrator of the family assets. An exemplary and loving father who will now take care of his son from heaven. RIP
