Inter Miami forward and Argentina legend Lionel Messi has paid an emotional tribute to his late father, Jorge Messi, days after his death.
Gatekeepers News reports that Jorge Messi reportedly died on Saturday at the age of 68 in Rosario, Argentina, following a prolonged illness.
He played a significant role behind the scenes throughout his son’s illustrious football career, supporting and representing Messi from his early days in the sport.
Messi took to social media on Wednesday to share a lengthy tribute to his father, reflecting on their close relationship, his father’s support and the difficulty of coming to terms with his death.
“Dad, I still can’t believe that you’ve gone. I don’t fall, or rather, I don’t want to fall. It’s very hard for me to imagine that I’m not going to see you anymore, that we’re not going to talk anymore,” Messi wrote.
“I know you were suffering and that it’s for the best, but you left too soon. We still had a lot left to enjoy together.”
Messi recalled how his father had wanted him to play at the last World Cup and how he had hoped to reach the final so Jorge could travel to watch him.
“You asked me so much to play in the last World Cup, and it was in the days just before it started that you got the worst,” he wrote.
“It was the first time you weren’t going to be at a tournament, but Mom told me that you were going to get better and that you’d be well enough to travel. I told you we were going to reach the final so you could travel.”
The Argentina captain said he waited for his father’s messages after every match but eventually realised how serious his condition had become.
“Every time a match ended I waited for and missed your message. That’s when I realized the situation was really bad,” Messi said.
He added that although Argentina reached the World Cup final, his father could not be there to witness it.
“I wanted to win it to bring it to you and show you a new one. I couldn’t; my legs wouldn’t give any more,” Messi wrote.
“When I arrived you thought we had lost the final on penalties. We couldn’t talk about any of everything that happened. You couldn’t enjoy anything. We weren’t champions, but you have no idea how much we enjoyed every single match.”
Messi also opened up about his uncertainty over his future in football following his father’s death.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you, I don’t know how to go on. I only played football and now I have quite a few doubts about whether I’ll keep doing it for much longer,” he wrote.
“You were by my side from the beginning; there was so little left until the end. Why couldn’t you hold on that little bit more so we could finish together?”
Reflecting on his childhood, Messi recalled how his father would take him to training sessions after work and never missed his matches.
“I know your happiness was seeing your family well, your wife, your children, and above all, without the others finding out, watching me play… It was always like that since I was little,” he wrote.
“You would take me to all the training sessions as soon as you got home from work. For many of them Mum took me because you were working.”
“Obviously you never missed a single match. How you suffered watching me and how you enjoyed it, even though you never gave me many compliments. You were dad, friend and representative.”
Messi said his father was always there for him, describing him as someone who rarely got things wrong.
“You were always the person you needed to be in every moment and you never got anything wrong. Beyond a few reproaches or arguments, you were always right. In the end it always turned out the way you said.”
The football star said he would continue to honour his father through the way he raises his own children.
“I’m going to miss you a lot, but you’ll always be present, and especially in the upbringing of my children, because I teach them and raise them the way you both did with me,” Messi wrote.
“Rest in peace and look after us from above the way you did down here. Thank you for everything. I love you, Dad.”
