death of his father<\/a>, Jorge Messi, at the age of 68 this past weekend, and he announced on Wednesday that his playing days may now be coming to an end.<\/p>\n\u201cAll I ever did was play football, and now I have serious doubts about whether I\u2019ll keep doing it for much longer,\u201d Messi posted on the social media platform Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do without you. I don\u2019t know how to carry on.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou were by my side from the very beginning; there was so little left until the end. Why couldn\u2019t you hold on just a little longer so we could finish it together?\u201d<\/p>\n
Messi, whose father was also his agent, is still under contract with Miami until the end of the 2028 season, but following Argentina\u2019s failure to defend the title they won at Qatar 2022 \u2013 Messi\u2019s first World Cup trophy \u2013 it was rumoured the forward may soon hang up his boots.<\/p>\n
In his message, the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star also reflected on the final months of his father\u2019s life, which coincided with the World Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept telling you we would reach the final so you could make the trip,\u201d said Messi, who returned to the US on Tuesday night following his father\u2019s funeral on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made it to the final, but you couldn\u2019t be there. I wanted to win it to bring it to you and show you a new one. I couldn\u2019t, my legs just gave out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time I tried to push past my physical limits, but I couldn\u2019t. I never felt right,\u201d Messi said in his first comments after the 1-0 defeat by Spain.<\/p>\n
Messi also highlighted his father\u2019s pivotal role in his life and career: \u201cYou were a father, a friend, and an agent. You were always exactly who you needed to be in every moment, and you never put a foot wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jorge Messi\u2019s unusual absence from the World Cup in June had already attracted attention.<\/p>\n
Messi\u2019s family asked the media for \u201chumanity\u201d during the tournament amid persistent rumours over Jorge\u2019s health.<\/p>\n
After bursting into tears after scoring against Algeria in a group match, Messi had admitted to dealing with \u201ca situation outside of sports\u201d.<\/p>\n
Messi, who was his country\u2019s captain at the World Cup, also revealed that one of the main reasons he appeared at the last edition was because it was his father\u2019s wish.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always asked me to play in the last World Cup and a few days before it started was when you got worse,\u201d Messi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the first time you weren\u2019t going to be at a \u2060tournament \u2026 Every time a match ended, I would wait and hope for \u2060your message. That\u2019s when I realised how real the situation was.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner bid farewell to his father during a private ceremony with close family and a few Argentina teammates in the town of Perez, adjacent to Rosario.<\/p>\n
The cause of death was not disclosed, but local media reported that Jorge Messi had been suffering from cancer.<\/p>\n
Despite his grief, Messi pledged to honour his father\u2019s memory through parenting his own children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to miss \u200cyou \u200cso much, but you will always be present, especially in the upbringing of my children, because I will teach them and raise them the way you raised me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Barcelona and PSG star Lionel Messi, who won World Cup 2022, hints at retirement. Argentina superstar Lionel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12624,49,48,527,799,44,457,82,772,1690,13009],"class_list":["post-855642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-argentina","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-football","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}