Lionel Messi's Heartfelt Tribute to Father Jorge: A Reflection on Grief
Lionel Messi has cast a shadow over the rest of his playing days after laying bare his grief in a raw, heartbreaking tribute to his father Jorge, who died last week aged 68.
The Argentina captain posted a long open letter on Instagram, a message that read less like a farewell to a parent and more like a man questioning the very thing that has defined his life.
“I only played football… now I have doubts”
In one stark passage, the 39-year-old admitted that his desire to keep playing may have gone with his father.
“I don't know what I'm going to do without you, I don't know how to go on,” Messi wrote. “I only played football and now I have quite a few doubts about whether I'll keep doing it for much longer. 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?”
For a player whose career has seemed almost preordained, the uncertainty was jarring. This was not a hint about a contract or a club. It was a son wondering whether the game still has meaning without the man who walked every step with him.
World Cup pain behind the smile
Messi also revealed the private torment behind his latest World Cup campaign, played as his father’s health deteriorated.
“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 Mum 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.”
Argentina did reach the final, but lost 1-0 to Spain, surrendering the title they had claimed in 2022. Behind the scenes, Messi was clinging to a different hope.
“Every time a match ended, I waited for and missed your message. That's when I realised the situation was really bad.”
He pushed anyway. For his father, not for another trophy.
“Even so, I didn't stop thinking about going as far as possible, to buy you time and so you could see a match. We reached the final and you couldn't be there. 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. This time I tried to go against my body, but I couldn't. I never managed to feel good.”
He described returning home to a father too ill to share even the details.
“When I arrived, you thought we had lost the final on penalties. We couldn't talk about anything that happened. You couldn't enjoy anything. We weren't champions, but you have no idea how much we enjoyed every single match. Once again, you were right: I had to be there and play it.”
The architect of a career
Jorge Messi was never just a face in the stands. He was the driving force who took a gifted boy from Rosario to Barcelona and changed football history.
As Messi’s representative, he famously secured the deal that brought his teenage son to Barça, convincing the club to pay for the growth hormone treatment the youngster needed. The first agreement, legend has it, was signed on a paper napkin – a makeshift contract that would shape a dynasty.
Messi’s tribute underlined how many roles his father filled.
“For many of them Mum took me because you were working. Obviously you never missed a single match,” he recalled. “How you suffered watching me and how you enjoyed it, even though you never gave me many compliments. You were dad, friend and representative. You were always the person you needed to be in every moment and you never got anything wrong.”
There was affection in the honesty.
“Beyond a few reproaches or arguments, you were always right. In the end it always turned out the way you said.”
Football world stands with Messi
The reaction to his post was instant. Rivals, teammates and icons of the game flooded his comments with support.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the man who has shared a generation-defining rivalry with Messi, put that aside with a simple, heartfelt message: “A huge hug to you and yours in these tough times, Leo. Much strength.”
Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham added his own words: “We stand with you and your family, Leo – always.”
It was a reminder that, beyond debates and comparisons, the sport’s biggest names understand the same loss.
A promise to carry on his father’s values
Messi closed his letter not with talk of goals or titles, but with a pledge about the kind of father he wants to be.
“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,” he wrote. “Rest in peace and look after us from above the way you did down here. Thank you for everything.”
The football world will inevitably turn to the same question: does this grief mark the beginning of the end for Messi on the pitch, or will he find one last reason to lace up his boots without the man who first tied them?
