(CNN) — Soccer star Lionel Messi published a farewell letter to his father, Jorge Messi, who died Saturday at 68, in which he expressed all his pain and revealed details of what he experienced during the World Cup.
“Dad, I still can’t believe you’re gone. It hasn’t sunk in, or rather, I don’t want it to sink in,” said the Argentine star in an Instagram post. He traveled to Rosario, Argentina, over the weekend for his father’s wake.
Tributes poured in from the wider sporting community with Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Luka Modrić and Carlos Alcaraz all commenting on Messi’s post. Ronaldo, the former Barcelona superstar’s big rival on the pitch, wrote: “A huge hug for you and yours in these hard moments, Leo. A lot of strength to you.”
The player reflected on what it was like to go through the 2026 World Cup without his father’s presence, as Jorge Messi was already facing a serious health condition and could not travel to the United States.
“You kept asking me to play in the last World Cup and just days before it started was when you got worse. It was the first time you weren’t going to be at a tournament, but mom told me you were going to get better and that you’d be well enough to travel. I told you we’d make it to the final so you could come,” recounted the Inter Miami star.
He also explained that he could no longer talk as much as before because of the illness.
“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 kept thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time and so you could watch a match,” he said.
About the last match of the tournament – in which Spain defeated the Albiceleste to win its second World Cup – Messi recounted: “I wanted to win it to bring (the trophy) to you and show you a new one. I couldn’t, my legs couldn’t go any further. This time I tried to go against my body, but I couldn’t. I never managed to feel well.”
The 39-year-old Messi also spoke about his future and admitted that he doesn’t have much time left on the field, something he directly linked to his father’s absence.
“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,” he wrote.
“You were by my side from the beginning, there was so little left until the end. Why couldn’t you hold on just a little longer and we could have finished together?”
Father and friend
Regarding their relationship, Messi recalled that his dad took him to almost every training session after work, that he “suffered and enjoyed” watching him play, and that he never gave him many compliments.
“You were a father, friend, and agent. You were always the person you needed to be at every moment and you never made a mistake. Beyond a few reproaches or arguments, you were always right. In the end, things always turned out the way you said,” he added.
“I’m going to miss you a lot, but you’ll always be present, and especially in the way I raise my children because I teach and raise them as you did with me.”
The soccer legend also thanked, in another post, “all the affection, respect, and enormous consideration” shown to him and his family in recent days.
“Thank you for being with us, for every message, every gesture, and above all, for respecting our pain and our privacy,” he said.
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