Lionel Messi Questions Football Future After Father's Death
Lionel Messi has cast serious doubt over his footballing future after publishing a raw, emotional farewell letter to his father Jorge, who died last week at the age of 68.
In a post shared on Instagram, the Argentina captain opened a window into his grief and, for the first time, openly questioned whether he still has the drive to keep playing.
“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 the sport like a thunderclap. A player who has defined an era suddenly sounded unsure if he wants to live in it any longer.
World Cup pain and a private battle
Messi, now 39, revealed the depth of the turmoil he carried through the most recent World Cup, as his father's health deteriorated in the background. He described how his main target in the tournament was no longer just a trophy, but time.
He explained that he pushed to reach the final in the hope that Jorge would recover enough to travel and see him on the biggest stage again. Argentina did reach the showpiece, only to fall 1-0 to Spain and surrender the crown they had claimed in 2022.
Behind the images of Messi straining for one more title lay a body at its limit and a mind elsewhere.
“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 time a match ended, I waited for and missed your message. That's when I realised the situation was really bad.”
The pressure built with every game. So did the silence on his phone.
“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.”
When he finally made it back to his father, the disconnect was complete.
“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 not just a proud parent in the stands. He was the driving force who helped build one of football’s greatest careers.
It was Jorge who fought to get his son to Barcelona as a teenager, who pushed the club to fund the expensive growth hormone treatment that underpinned Messi’s development. The first agreement with the Catalan side, famously scribbled on a paper napkin, has become part of football folklore. Behind that story stood a father refusing to let a prodigy slip through the cracks.
Messi’s letter painted a picture of a man who filled every role his son needed.
“For many of them Mum took me because you were working. Obviously you never missed a single match,” Messi 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.
“Beyond a few reproaches or arguments, you were always right. In the end it always turned out the way you said.”
The bond was professional, emotional, and unshakeable. With Jorge gone, the foundation Messi built his life on has shifted.
Football world stands with Messi
The response to Messi’s post underlined the respect he commands across rivalries and continents. Stars who once chased him on the pitch now lined up to offer support.
Cristiano Ronaldo, his long-time counterpart in the game’s defining individual duel, wrote: “A huge hug to you and yours in these tough times, Leo. Much strength.”
Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham also added his voice: “We stand with you and your family, Leo – always.”
Messages from former teammates, opponents and clubs followed, turning the comments section into a digital guard of honour around a grieving son.
A legacy carried forward
Messi closed his tribute with a promise. The boots may or may not stay on much longer; the influence of his father will not fade.
“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.”
His future on the pitch now hangs in the balance, wrapped in sorrow and fatigue. The question is no longer what more Lionel Messi can give to football.
It’s whether, without the man who walked every step beside him, he still wants to give it at all.
