Messi breaks silence on death of his father and former manager Jorge Messi

Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has spoken publicly for the first time since the death of his father and longtime manager, Jorge Messi, at the age of 68. In an emotional statement on his official social media accounts, Messi said his father had played three roles in his life: father, friend and manager. “I still can’t believe he’s gone. I haven’t come to terms with it yet, or rather, I don’t want to,” he wrote. Messi said his father had been battling a serious illness for a long time and noted that the November 2025 Inter Miami match against Nashville was the last game Jorge Messi was able to watch from the stands. The Argentine captain added that he had hoped to win the 2026 World Cup and bring the trophy to his father, but the opportunity never came. Although Argentina reached the final, his father’s poor health prevented him from attending that match as well. Messi also said that after every match he would wait for a message from his father, and that this time the message did not arrive, which made the reality of the loss clear to him. He closed his statement by saying he would feel his father beside him in every moment of raising his children.