5 min readUpdated: Aug 12, 2026 07:11 PM IST
Argentina captain Lionel Messi on Wednesday paid tribute to his late father Jorge, who had died last week. Jorge was crucial behind the scenes in his son’s prolific career. He coached Messi during his early years at a local club in Rosario and saw him through the period when he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency as a child.
“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. I know you were suffering and that it’s for the best, but you left too soon. We still had a lot left to enjoy together,” Messi wrote on Instagram.
“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, but Mom 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 realized the situation was really bad. 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,” he added.
Messi also said that he wanted to win the World Cup for his father, even going against his body but could not cross the final hurdle where they lost 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. I never managed to feel good. When I arrived you thought we had lost the final on penalties. We couldn’t talk about any of everything 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,” he wrote.
“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. 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?
“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. Rest in peace and look after us from above the way you did down here. Thank you for everything. I love you, Dad,” he said.
It was reported last month that Jorge was under medical supervision, with the family expressing deep discomfort over the “lack of sensitivity, respect and decency” in coverage. “We ask for responsibility, caution and humanity. A person’s health and the peace of mind of their loved ones should not be the subject of speculation or irresponsible media attention,” the statement read.
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The statement came hours after Messi scored a hat-trick in Argentina’s 3-0 World Cup opening win over Algeria, becoming the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick at the age of 38. The Argentine captain was visibly emotional during the match and was seen crying after his first goal.
Messi later revealed the reason behind his tears, linking it directly to his father’s health. “I cried after the first goal, yes,” Messi said. “But it was something completely unrelated to football. I went through some difficult days, but I’m grateful to the entire delegation and my teammates because they were always by my side, giving me a lot of strength to help me get through it.”