Messi Questions His Future After Father Jorge's Death
Lionel Messi has said he is unsure how much longer he will continue playing football, in an emotional tribute to his father Jorge, who died on 7 August 2026 at the age of 68.
Jorge Messi had been his son's agent since Lionel was 14 years old — the person who guided a boy from Rosario, Argentina, through every contract, every transfer, and every step of a career that has produced more goals than almost any player in history. He died at a medical clinic in Rosario after a long illness, according to Reuters Reuters. The Associated Press confirmed he passed away at a hospital in the same city AP.
Messi, now 39, flew to Rosario on the night of Saturday, 8 August, to be with family ESPN.
In a social media post, he wrote: "I don't know what I'm going to do without you." The message went further: "I don't know how to carry on. I used to just play football, and now I'm really not sure if I'll carry on doing it for much longer" BBC Sport.
Those words carry weight far beyond grief. Messi has spent more than two decades on a football pitch, first as a teenager at Barcelona, then at Paris Saint-Germain, and now at Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, the top flight of American football. He has won the World Cup with Argentina, eight Ballon d'Or awards — the sport's individual player-of-the-year honour — and scored over 850 career goals for club and country combined. To hear him question whether he will carry on at all is to hear a door creak open that many assumed would stay shut for some time.
Jorge's death has also interrupted Messi's pursuit of his 1,000th career goal — a number no professional footballer has reached. The milestone had been the quiet storyline of his season at Inter Miami, each goal drawing the tally closer. Now there is no set date for his return to the team, according to Marca Marca.
Football has a way of stopping for the things that matter more than a match. Inter Miami will continue to play without their captain. Argentina will have to consider what a national team looks like if its greatest player decides that this is the moment to walk away. And fans across the world — those who grew up watching a left-footed boy from Rosario do things with a ball that seemed to ignore the laws of physics — are left to sit with the possibility that the farewell they never wanted may be closer than they imagined.
Messi has given no timeline for a decision. For now, the game waits, and a son mourns the man who made all of it possible.
