Lionel Messi missed Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup defeat by Monterrey on Saturday night after the death of his father, as his team-mates led tributes before and during the match.<\/p>\n
Jorge Messi died on Saturday at the age of 68 following a long illness.<\/p>\n
Jorge, who had also been the Argentina forward’s agent since he was 14, passed away in a hospital in his hometown of Rosario, Argentina.<\/p>\n
Miami paid tribute to Messi’s father with a minute’s silence before kick-off, while players wore black armbands and Jorge’s name was displayed on the big screens at Nu Stadium.<\/p>\n
The club added a black ribbon to their social media profile pictures, and in a statement said: “Our hearts are with our captain, Leo, and the entire Messi family.”<\/p>\n
Messi’s Argentina team-mate Rodrigo de Paul celebrated scoring the opening goal of the 2-1 defeat by taking off his shirt to reveal Messi’s.<\/p>\n
Fans held up handmade signs offering their support to Messi and paying tribute to his father.<\/p>\n
Miami striker Luis Suarez, who missed the match through suspension, wrote on Instagram that Jorge will continue to watch over his son “with pride, as he always did”.<\/p>\n
Messi’s former club Barcelona observed a moment of silence before their 1-0 friendly win against Nottingham Forest in Udine, Italy.<\/p>\n
In 2000, Jorge accompanied his 13-year-old son to Catalonia and played a key role in persuading the club to sign him.<\/p>\n
Barcelona thanked Jorge “for his commitment to our club, for entrusting us with the beginnings and the most glorious years of his son Leo’s football career”.<\/p>\n
Fans left flags and flowers outside Messi’s childhood home in Rosario, while Argentine giants Boca Juniors and River Plate both held periods of silence before their matches.<\/p>\n
The Argentine Football Association said it “deeply mourns with sadness and sorrow the passing of Jorge Messi, father of our captain and emblem, Lionel Messi”.<\/p>\n
It added: “From here, we stand in solidarity with the entire family during this difficult time and send the most heartfelt, warm and affectionate embrace.”<\/p>\n
Paris St-Germain, for whom Messi played between 2021 and 2023 after leaving Barcelona, said: “The club sends its full support to Leo, his family and loved ones in this painful ordeal. May he rest in peace.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi missed Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup defeat by Monterrey on Saturday night after the death of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-366808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}