{"id":483243,"date":"2026-06-18T07:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483243\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:26:08","slug":"fifa-world-cup-lionel-messis-fathers-health-struggles-behind-on-field-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483243\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Lionel Messi\u2019s father\u2019s health struggles behind on-field tears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAnd this week there were some situations that slightly worsened his health, and Messi is going through this internal struggle.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Lionel Messi was seen in tears after scoring his first goal against Algeria at the Fifa World Cup. Photo \/ Getty Images\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Lionel Messi was seen in tears after scoring his first goal against Algeria at the Fifa World Cup. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIn other words, like any human being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">It has been reported that 68-year-old Jorge Messi was hospitalised after a medical episode in January, and has supposedly undergone cardiovascular and neurological tests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">No official diagnosis has been shared by the family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Lionel\u2019s wife Antonela and their children watched as his hat-trick against Algeria made him the World Cup\u2019s joint all-time leading goal-scorer. He said he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/football\/football-world-cup\/fifa-world-cup-argentina-v-algeria-live-updates-group-j-clash-in-kansas-city\/GR7W76HGGFGATHPYXBBIDKOISU\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/sport\/football\/football-world-cup\/fifa-world-cup-argentina-v-algeria-live-updates-group-j-clash-in-kansas-city\/GR7W76HGGFGATHPYXBBIDKOISU\/\">happy to reach the milestone with them in the stands<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cTo enjoy this with my family, with my teammates, the ones who are always there, is a really beautiful moment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">He also spoke positively of the Argentina squad that is aiming to become the first to win back-to-back World Cup titles for their country since Brazil in 1962.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe squad, it\u2019s a very united, very strong group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI feel good; we were lucky enough to win a tough match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt\u2019s important to start off with a win in the first game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019m grateful to the fans, because once again they\u2019ve shown that Argentina is crazy about this \u2013 we packed the stadium again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\">TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd this week there were some situations that slightly worsened his health, and Messi is going through this&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,9092,86267,8018,230657,4057,10542,2209,9064,36862,305,134,168033,1073,242711,111,139,69,16803,6725,15267,65831,27916,213,3258,73172,3608,377],"class_list":["post-483243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-against","tag-algeria","tag-argentina","tag-argentine","tag-behind","tag-cup","tag-father","tag-fathers","tag-fifa","tag-have","tag-health","tag-lionel","tag-media","tag-messis","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-onfield","tag-pitch","tag-reported","tag-scoring","tag-sick","tag-sports","tag-struggles","tag-tears","tag-were","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}