Lionel Messi played his first game for Inter Miami since the death of his father on Wednesday night.
The soccer star’s father Jorge died at 68 on August 7 following a battle with illness that overshadowed the Argentina captain’s mesmerizing World Cup campaign in the United States, in which he led his team to the final.
The devastated forward came onto the pitch in the 46th minute of Inter Miami’s clash with Club Leon in the Leagues Cup tournament pitting MLS and Liga MX sides against each other.
Messi received a standing ovation from the audience at the Nu Stadium as he entered at halftime. His substitution had a positive impact on the side, but The Herons fell 3-2 to Leon.
The result officially eliminated Inter Miami from the knockout stages of the tournament, following their win over Atletico San Luis and a prior loss to CF Monterrey. Inter Miami reached the final of last year’s tournament and won the 2023 edition of the Leagues Cup.
For Messi, the match was his first since the death of his father. It also came on the same day the Argentine posted a heartbreaking tribute on his Instagram account.
Lionel Messi made his return to Inter Miami days after the death of his father
Lionel’s father, Jorge Messi, passed away on August 7 following a long battle with illness
Messi was a second-half substitute, but couldn’t help Miami overcome a 3-2 loss to Club Leon
‘Dad, I still can’t believe you’re gone,’ the tribute read in Spanish. ‘It hasn’t sunk in yet, or rather, I don’t want to accept it. It’s very difficult for me to imagine never seeing you again, never talking to you again.
‘I know you were suffering and that this is for the best, but you left too soon. We still had so much to enjoy together.
‘I don’t know what I’ll do without you, I don’t know how to go on. I only played football and now I have serious doubts that I’ll continue doing that for much longer.
‘You were by my side from the beginning, it was so close to the end. Why couldn’t you hold on that little bit longer and we could have finished together?’
Longtime sporting rival Cristiano Ronaldo replied to the post, saying: ‘A huge hug to you and yours in these tough times, Leo. Much strength.’
The Portuguese legend knows of Messi’s heartache only too well after losing his father, Jose Dinis Aveiro, in 2005 to an alcoholism-related liver condition when he was aged just 20.
‘I really don’t know my father 100 per cent,’ Ronaldo told Piers Morgan in 2019. ‘He was a drunk person. I never spoke with him, like a normal conversation. It was hard.’
Messi revealed that his father was the driving force behind his decision to play at this summer’s World Cup, but his ageing legs prevented him from bringing the trophy home – with Spain winning 1-0 in the New York final.
Lionel Messi has thanked fans for their support following the death of his father Jorge (left)
Messi’s father and agent died in Rosario, Argentina on Friday August 7
Jorge’s death saw an outpouring of emotional tributes from the football world, including from Messi’s first team Newell’s Old Boys, as well as Barcelona and Argentina.
‘You kept asking me to play in the last World Cup, and just a few days before it started, you got worse,’ Messi’s tribute continued. ‘It was the first time you wouldn’t be in a tournament, but Mom kept telling me you’d get better and be well enough to travel. I told you we were going to reach the final so you could travel.
‘Every time a game ended, I waited and missed your message. That’s when I realized the situation was really serious. Even so, I couldn’t stop thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time and for you to see a game. We reached the final and you couldn’t be there. I wanted to win it to bring it to you and show you a new one. I couldn’t, my legs couldn’t take it anymore. This time I tried to go against my physical limitations, but I couldn’t. I never managed to feel well.
‘When I arrived, you thought we’d lost the final on penalties. We couldn’t talk about anything that happened. You couldn’t enjoy any of it. We didn’t win the championship, but you don’t know how much we enjoyed every game. Once again, you were right: I had to be there and play.
‘I’m telling you this because it was the only thing we couldn’t talk about, because you already know everything else. We used to talk every day and see each other whenever possible, given my commitments.’
Messi missed Inter Miami’s defeat by Monterrey on Sunday to return home in the wake of his father’s passing, and thanked fans for their well wishes.
He added on his Instagram stories: ‘I want to sincerely thank everyone for all the love, respect and enormous consideration you have shown me and my family during this incredibly painful time following the loss of my dad.
‘Thank you for being there for us, for every message, every gesture and, above all, for respecting our grief and our privacy.’
Lionel Messi’s father Jorge, pictured at the 2022 World Cup final, died at the age of 68
Messi also posted a picture with his father, captioned: ‘I love you, pa’ in Spanish.
Football legend Messi was extremely close to his father, who also operated as his agent and de facto business manager throughout his career, overseeing his son’s multi-million dollar empire off the pitch.
In recent months, though, the patriarch of the family had been dealing with an as-yet-unconfirmed medical issue that had seen him taken to hospital in his home country.
His illness first came to light when Lionel, 39, cried on the pitch at the World Cup in a rare public display of emotion.
After scoring a hat-trick against Algeria in Argentina’s opening group game in Kansas City, Messi was questioned by journalists and said: ‘No, honestly it’s something completely unrelated to sports. It’s been a few difficult days, complicated.’
Just hours later, journalist Eduardo Feinmann explained the reason for the tears in an interview on Radio Mitre, one of the country’s most listened-to stations.
‘This has to do with his father. His father is not in good health,’ he said. ‘For quite some time now, several months, since last year.
‘And this week there were some situations that slightly worsened his health, and Messi is going through this internal struggle. In other words, like any human being.’
Messi stands in front of his family (including father Jorge (third left) in Rosario in October 2003
It has since been reported that Jorge suffered a ‘medical episode’ at his home in January of this year, and he was hospitalised as a result.
In the aftermath, he was said to have undergone cardiovascular and neurological tests, but no official diagnosis was shared by the family, who sought to keep Jorge’s health out of the media.
Jorge’s health became headline news again in June, when a broadcaster in Argentina falsely claimed he had died – before later issuing an emotional apology and stepping down from her job.
Lionel is the third of four children of Jorge and his wife Celia Cuccittini, and the pair remained together until his death.
They married in 1978 and split their time between Rosario and Miami, where their footballing superstar son currently plays for David Beckham’s Inter Miami in Major League Soccer (MLS).
Before becoming Lionel’s agent, Jorge worked for a steel manufacturer in Villa Constitucion, meeting his wife as a young man in Rosario – where the family then grew up.
Jorge arrives at son Lionel’s wedding in 2017 with his wife Celia (L) and daughter Maria (R)
Messi has two older brothers, Rodrigo and Matias, and a younger sister, Maria Sol.
Jorge has been at Messi’s side throughout his historic career, which began in Argentina with Newell’s Old Boys, before he moved to Spain to join Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy in 2000.
He became the greatest of all-time in an incredible 21 years in Barcelona, before stunning the world with a move to Paris Saint-Germain – orchestrated by Jorge – in 2021.
After two seasons in the French capital, he moved to MLS and Inter Miami, where he remains to this day at the age of 39.
While Lionel’s career has been magical on the pitch, it has not been without controversy off it, with Jorge famously by his son’s side throughout his tax fraud case in 2016.
The pair sat together in front of the court, with Jorge in his role as his son’s business manager, with the prosecution alleging that Messi failed to properly pay tax on income from his image rights between 2007 and 2009.
Ultimately, both father and son were convicted of three tax offenses, initially each receiving suspended 21-month prison sentences.
Jorge’s sentence was subsequently reduced to 15 months upon review in 2017 by Spain’s Supreme Court, with the pair also hit with substantial fines.
