Lionel Messi has admitted he is unsure how much longer he will continue playing football, in an emotional tribute penned after the passing of his father, Jorge Messi, last week. Jorge was 68 and had been battling a long illness.
More than just a father, Jorge had also been Messi's agent since the Argentine forward was just 14 years old, guiding him through every milestone of a career that would go on to redefine the sport.
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"I don't know what I'm going to do without you," Messi wrote on social media.
"I don't know how to carry on. I used to just play football, and now I'm really not sure if I'll carry on doing it for much longer, he added.
"You were by my side from the very beginning. We were so close to the end. Why didn't you hang in there just a little longer so we could finish this together?
Messi's football journey under his father's watch was nothing short of extraordinary, from lifting the FIFA World Cup trophy as Argentina's captain in 2022 to leading the side to the 2026 World Cup final, where they lost to Spain 1-0.
He returned to club duty with Inter Miami before heading home following his father's demise.
A private funeral was performed on Sunday in a cemetery in Perez, on the outskirts of Rosario, after Jorge Messi passed away at a hospital in Rosario, Argentina, the family's homeland. Messi flew back to be with his family.
"Dad, I still can't believe you're gone," Messi continued. "It hasn't sunk in, or rather, I don't want it to.
"It's so hard for me to imagine that I'll never see you again, that we'll never 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," the 39-year-old added.
The toll of his father's illness had been visible even during the World Cup itself. Messi was seen breaking down in tears after scoring the opening goal in Argentina's 3-0 win over Algeria, an emotional moment he later said stemmed from a matter "completely unrelated to football." His family subsequently issued a statement confirming that Jorge had been dealing with a "health-related situation."
Messi added: "You kept asking me to play in one last World Cup, and just days before it started, that's when you took a turn for the worse.
"It was the first time you weren't going to be at a tournament, but Mom kept telling me you'd get better and that you'd be well enough to travel. I kept telling you that we were going to make it to the final so you could come along.
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"Every time a game ended, I'd wait for and miss your message. That's when I realised how bad the situation was.
"Even so, I couldn't stop thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time to watch a game. We made it to the final, and you couldn't be there.
"I wanted to win it so I could bring the trophy to you and show you a new one. I couldn't, my legs had nothing left. This time I tried to push past my physical limits, but I couldn't. I never managed to feel, right," Messi concluded.
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