Lionel Messi Questions Future in Football After Father's Death
Lionel Messi has laid bare the deepest crisis of his career, admitting he is no longer sure he wants to keep playing football after the death of his father, Jorge, last week at the age of 68.
In an emotional open letter posted on Instagram, the Argentina captain wrote directly to the man who had guided every step of his journey from Rosario to the summit of the world game. What began as a tribute quickly turned into a raw confession that his desire to continue may have gone with him.
“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?”
Those lines hit like a thunderclap. A player who has defined an era, an eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, openly questioning whether he has the strength or motivation to carry on.
World Cup agony behind the smile
Messi also revealed the private torment behind his most recent World Cup campaign, played while his father's health was deteriorating. Argentina reached the final but lost 1-0 to Spain, surrendering the title they had lifted in 2022. For Messi, the tournament was not just about defending a crown. It was a race against time.
“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.”
Every match, he said, ended with the same ritual and the same absence.
“Every time a match ended, I waited for and missed your message. That's when I realised the situation was really bad.”
The pressure finally told in the decisive game. Messi admitted his body simply failed him at the climax of the tournament.
“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 to his father after the final, only to find that even the story of the match had been lost in the fog of illness.
“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 legend
Jorge Messi was never just a proud parent in the stands. He was the driving force behind one of football’s most famous careers. It was Jorge who negotiated the move that took a slight, undersized teenager from Newell’s Old Boys to Barcelona, convincing the Catalan club to pay for costly growth hormone treatment. The first agreement, signed on a paper napkin, has long since passed into football folklore.
For Messi, his father was far more than an agent.
“For many of them Mum took me because you were working. Obviously you never missed a single match,” he wrote. “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. Beyond a few reproaches or arguments, you were always right. In the end it always turned out the way you said.”
That blend of toughness and guidance shaped the most gifted player of his generation. It also leaves a void that no coach, no club, no trophy can fill.
Football world stands with Messi
The reaction across the sport was immediate and heartfelt. Rivals, teammates and icons from past and present crowded beneath Messi’s post to offer support.
Cristiano Ronaldo, his great on-pitch adversary for more than a decade, wrote: “A huge hug to you and yours in these tough times, Leo. Much strength.” Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham added: “We stand with you and your family, Leo – always.”
The outpouring underlined how Messi’s grief has cut through club colours and old rivalries. The question now hangs in the air: what does all this mean for the final chapter of his career?
Messi did not give that answer. What he did promise was to carry his father’s influence into the next generation.
“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 concluded. “Rest in peace and look after us from above the way you did down here. Thank you for everything.”
The man who once seemed eternal on a football pitch suddenly sounds like someone weighing the end. Whether he steps away soon or fights on a little longer, the game he transformed now waits on his next move.
