Argentina captain Lionel Messi has paid tribute to his late father Jorge, who died last week aged 68, in an emotional Instagram post expressing profound grief and doubt about continuing his career.
Jorge Messi, who coached his son in early years in Rosario and later served as his long-time agent, passed away after a period of illness.
“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.
He recalled his father’s request that he play in the recent World Cup despite deteriorating health just before the tournament began.
“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. It was the first time you weren’t going to be at a tournament… I told you we were going to reach the final so you could travel.”
Messi said he pushed through physical struggles hoping to win the title for his father, but Argentina lost the final to Spain.
“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.”
Reflecting on the loss, he added: “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.”
Messi concluded by saying his father would remain present in the upbringing of his own children and asked him to “rest in peace and look after us from above.”
