"I just played soccer, and now I have a lot of doubts about whether I'm going to keep doing it for much longer." That's Lionel Messi, 39 years old, writing publicly about his father's death — and about whether any of it still makes sense without him.
Jorge Messi, his son's agent, representative, and closest companion throughout a career that spanned Barcelona, PSG, and Inter Miami, died on August 8 at Sanatorio Centro in Argentina. He was 68. Four days later, Lionel posted an open letter on Instagram that reads less like a tribute and more like a man genuinely trying to figure out what comes next.
The World Cup that Jorge never saw
Jorge was noticeably absent from Argentina's World Cup matches this summer, and Messi's emotional reaction after scoring against Algeria — breaking down, alluding to "some difficult days" off the pitch — makes a lot more sense now. He was watching his father deteriorate from thousands of miles away while trying to drag Argentina to a final.
"You kept asking me to play in the last World Cup, and a few days before it started was when you felt the worst," Messi wrote. He promised his father the team would reach the final, hoping Jorge would recover enough to travel by then. They did reach it. They lost to Spain 1-0. Jorge never made the trip.
"Every time a game ended, I waited for and I missed your message. That's when I realized that the situation was really bad."
That detail — waiting for a text that stopped coming — cuts through everything else in the letter.
What this means for Messi's future
Jorge Messi wasn't just a father. He negotiated every major contract of Lionel's career: the Barcelona deal, the PSG move, the Inter Miami switch. He was at virtually every game across four decades. His absence from this World Cup was the first real crack in that pattern, and now it's permanent.
Messi's comment about having "a lot of doubts" about continuing will ripple through the football world quickly. Inter Miami's forward line, MLS viewership figures, and Argentina's 2026 World Cup planning all hinge on whether he keeps playing. There's no obvious successor to Jorge's role, either — personally or professionally.
The letter ends with a promise to raise his own children the way Jorge raised him. "Rest in peace and watch over us from above like you did here. Thank you for everything. I love you, Dad."
Jorge Messi traveled to Barcelona with his 13-year-old son to give him a shot at a career. He was still there, or trying to be, at the very last one. Fifty-two years of football between them, and Messi's asking why his father couldn't hold on just a little longer so they could finish it together.
