Messi considers a future without his late father

"All I ever did was play football, and now I have serious doubts about whether I’ll keep doing it for much longer."

Messi in a letter to his late father

Lionel Messi is acclaimed almost unanimously to be the greatest football player ever to take the pitch. Since leading Argentina to the 2022 World Cup title he has continued to build his resume; this summer, at 39, he produced the most impressive performance of his six World Cup appearances, again carrying La Albiceleste to the final, where they lost 1-0 to Spain.

He did so, knowing that his father, Jorge -- perhaps the most important person in his life other than his wife and children -- was seriously ill. Leo spent a couple of weeks with his father after the World Cup before returning to Florida to help Inter Miami pursue a second Leagues Cup title. He was a second half sub in the Herons' Major League Soccer regular season draw with Columbus on Aug. 1, then scored twice and added an assist Aug. 5 in the Leagues Cup opener against Atlético San Luis, a 4-2 win.

Then Jorge Messi died.

Messi and his family -- wife Antonella and sons Thiago, 13, Mateo, 10, and Ciro, 8 -- flew to Rosario, Argentina, early Saturday to be with family at Jorge's memorial service.

It is a well-documented theme of the Messi mythos that Leo and his father were very close. Today, in an emotional tribute to Jorge, he posted a long letter to his father on Instagram that clearly expressed the depth of his devotion. It is painful, personal, poignant and, I hope cathartic for the grieving son.

"You were my dad, my friend, and my agent," Messi wrote to his father. "You were always the person you needed to be in every moment, and you were never wrong about anything....you were always right. In the end, things always turned out the way you said they would."

(The full text of Messi's letter is available from many online sites; here's a link to the Miami Herald's article.)

Messi is understandably adrift after his father's death, reassessing his priorities and finding his way ahead -- maybe without soccer.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you. I don’t know how to keep going. All I ever did was play football, and now I have serious doubts about whether I’ll keep doing it for much longer. You were by my side from the very beginning; there was so little left until the end. Why couldn’t you hold on just a little longer so we could finish it together?" he wrote.

Has Messi played his last match? Maybe; it's hard to know someone else's heart. But I don't think so.

Messi loves soccer and, despite his advanced age in the context of the Beautiful Game, he is still playing it at a very high level. I think after sufficient time to reflect, he will decide his father would want him to continue as long as it brings him joy.

And if Leo finds no joy in the game without his father, and chooses to retire, he has more than earned that privilege. He has nothing left to prove on the pitch, he has no material wants, he has provided generational wealth for his family, and he is on the brink of a new adventure as a team executive and entrepreneur.

Selfishly, I want Messi to play out his Inter Miami contract, which runs through December 2028. But for the man who lost his father and his life's anchor, I wish him only peace.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow