Lionel Messi’s heartbreaking letter to his father, Jorge: “I don’t know how to go on”
Lionel Messi, who has always been very private and reluctant to share details of his life on social media, decided to make an exception by posting a letter on his Instagram profile dedicated to his father, who passed away a few days ago at the age of 86 after a long illness.
“Dad, I still can’t believe you’re gone. I can’t bring myself to accept it—or rather, I don’t want to accept it,” the Argentine star began. “It’s incredibly hard for me to imagine that I’ll never see you again, that we’ll never speak again. I know you were suffering, but you left us too soon. We still had so much left to enjoy together. You always asked me to play in the last World Cup, and your condition worsened just a few days before it started. It was the first time you wouldn’t be there, but Mom told me you’d get better and that you’d be able to join us.”
“I’d tell you that we’d make it to the final so you’d have to come. Every time a game ended, I’d wait for a message from you and miss you. That’s when I realized the situation was really bad. Even so, I couldn’t stop thinking about going as far as possible to give you time to watch a match. I wanted to win the World Cup to bring it to you and show you a new one. I didn’t make it—my legs just wouldn’t hold me up anymore. This time I tried to push past my physical limits, but I couldn’t do it, and I wasn’t feeling well.”
“We weren’t able to talk about everything that happened. You didn’t get to enjoy any of it. We didn’t become champions, but you have no idea how much we enjoyed every game. Once again, you were right: I had to be there, and I had to play. I’m telling you this because it was the only thing we couldn’t talk about—you already know everything else. We talked every day and saw each other as soon as we could.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do without you; I don’t know how to move forward. I seriously doubt I’ll keep playing much longer. You’ve been by my side from the very beginning; you’d take me to every practice as soon as you got home from work. For many of them, my mom would take me because you were working. Of course, you never missed a single one of my games. How you suffered watching me play—and how much you enjoyed it—even though you never gave me many compliments. You were a father, a friend, and an agent. You were always exactly the person you needed to be at every moment, and you were never wrong about anything.”
“Despite the occasional scolding or argument, you were always right. In the end, things always turned out just as you said they would. I’ll miss you so much, but you’ll always be with me—especially in raising my children—because I’m teaching and raising them just as you did with me. Rest in peace and watch over us from up there just as you did here. Thank you for everything. I love you, Dad,” concludes the heartbreaking letter shared by number ten.
