12/08/2026
“I love you, Dad. ❤️”
Lionel Messi 🇦🇷 posted a message on his social media following the recent death of his father 👇 (This is so emotional… 🥹)
“Dad, I still can’t believe that you’re gone. I’m not falling apart, or rather, I don’t want to fall apart. It’s very difficult for me to imagine that I won’t see you anymore, that we won’t talk anymore. I know you were suffering and that this is for the best, but you left far too soon. We still had so many things left to experience together.
You wanted me so badly to play in the last World Cup and, just a few days before it began, that’s when you fell ill. It was the first time you weren’t going to be present at a tournament, but Mum kept telling me that you would get better and be well enough to travel. I told you that we would reach the final so that you could come.
Every time a match ended, I would wait for your message, and I missed it. That’s when I realized that the situation was truly serious. Despite everything, I kept thinking about going as far as possible, so that I could give you more time and so that you could attend a match. We reached the final and you couldn’t be there. I wanted to win it so I could bring it home to you and show you once again. I couldn’t go on anymore; my legs wouldn’t respond. This time, I tried to push against what my body was telling me, but I couldn’t. I never managed to feel well.
When I came home, you thought we had lost the final on penalties. We didn’t get to talk about everything that had happened. You weren’t able to enjoy any of it. We didn’t become champions, but you have no idea how much we enjoyed every match. Once again, you were right: you had to be there and play it.
I’m telling this because it’s the only thing we didn’t get to talk about, because you already know everything else. We spoke every day and saw each other whenever my commitments allowed me to.
I don’t know what I’m going to do without you; I don’t know how to continue. All I did was play football, and now I have many doubts about continuing for much longer. You have been by my side from the very beginning; we were so close to reaching the end together. Why couldn’t you hold on just a little longer so that we could finish this together?
I know that your happiness was seeing your family doing well—your wife, your children and, especially in these last few years, seeing me play.
Since I was little, it has always been this way. You would take me to every training session as soon as you got home from work. For many of them, Mum was the one who took me because you were working.
Of course, you never missed a match. How much you suffered watching me and how much pleasure you took from it, even though you never gave me many compliments.
You were a father, a friend and my agent. You were always the person you needed to be at every moment, and you were never wrong about anything. Despite a few disagreements or arguments, you were always right. In the end, things always turned out the way you said they would.
I’m going to miss you tremendously, but you will always be present, especially in the way I raise my children, because I teach and raise them the way you raised me.
Rest in peace and watch over us from up there, just as you did here. Thank you for everything.”
