Lionel Messi paid a heartfelt tribute to his late father on Wednesday.
"Dad, I still can’t believe you’re gone," he wrote. "It hasn’t sunk in, or rather, I don’t want it to sink in. It’s very hard for me to imagine that I’m never going to see you again, that we’re never going to talk again. I know you were suffering and that this is for the best, but you left too soon. We still had so much left to enjoy together. You asked me so much to play in the last World Cup, and it was just days before it started that you got the worst."
The Messi family issued a statement to media outlets in June declaring that Jorge was dealing with an unspecified "health situation."
Lionel Told Jorge That Argentina Would Make the Final
The statement was released one week after the 2026 World Cup began. Messi wrote that he told his father Argentina would make the final so he could attend. He waited for a message from him after every match. At that point, he understood that the situation was "really bad." Still, he noted that he spoke to his father every day and saw each other at every opportunity around his schedule.Leo wanted to win the championship to show his father another trophy, but he said his "legs had nothing left" by the time Argentina reached the final, which they lost 1–0 to Spain. Upon returning home, his father assumed he lost the final on penalties. For some reason, he repeatedly said they could not talk about it.
It was at that point that Leo got very emotional about the future of his playing career.
"I don’t know what I’m going to do without you, I don’t know how to carry on," he said. "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 just a little longer so we could finish together? I know your happiness was seeing your family well—your wife, your children—and above all, without the others knowing, watching me play. It’s been like that since I was little. You took me to all the training sessions as soon as you got home from work. Mom took me to many of them because you were working. Of course, you never missed a single match. How you suffered watching me and how you enjoyed it, even though you never gave me many compliments."
Leo remembered his father as his agent and friend, and the person he needed to be whenever he needed him, and with a few exceptions, was always right.
"I’m going to miss you so much, but you’ll always be present, especially in the way I raise my children, because I teach and educate them the way you both did with me," he said. "Rest in peace and look after us from above the way you did here. Thank you for everything. I love you, Dad."