(foto: Uradni FB/TW/IG profil igralca)
Lionel Messi has questioned his football future in an emotional farewell to his father, Jorge, admitting he does not know how much longer he wants to continue playing.
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The death of Jorge Messi has deeply affected Lionel Messi, and the Argentine superstar has now spoken about his football future in terms that will inevitably raise questions about retirement.
Messi has not announced his retirement and has given no date for his final match. But at 39, he has admitted directly that losing the man who accompanied him throughout virtually his entire career has changed the way he thinks about continuing.
In an emotional farewell to his father, Messi wrote:
"I only played football, and now I doubt that I will do it much longer."
The sentence is significant because Messi remains a player for Inter Miami and has yet to announce the end of his international career with Argentina.
"Why didn't you hold on a little longer?"
Jorge Messi's role in his son's life extended far beyond being his father.
He accompanied Lionel from the earliest stages of his football journey and later became his agent, representative, and one of the central figures behind the biggest decisions of his extraordinary career.
Messi's farewell revealed how difficult he is finding life without him.
"I don't know what I'll do without you, I don't know how to move forward," Messi wrote.
He then addressed the timing of his father's death in particularly painful words.
"You were with me from the beginning, and there was so little left until the end. Why didn't you hold on a little longer so we could finish together?"
Those words have inevitably led to speculation that Messi already viewed the end of his playing career as relatively close.
Jorge wanted to see his son at one final World Cup
One of the most emotional sections of Messi's message concerned the 2026 World Cup.
Jorge desperately wanted to watch his son compete on football's biggest international stage one more time, but his health deteriorated before the tournament.
Messi revealed that he had hoped Argentina's progress would eventually allow his father to travel to see him.
"I told you that we would reach the final so that you could travel. We reached the final, but you couldn't be there," he wrote.
Argentina eventually reached the World Cup final, but Jorge was unable to attend.
Messi admits he struggled physically at the World Cup
Messi also made another revealing admission about the tournament.
The Argentine suggested his body was already struggling with the demands of playing at the highest level.
"I couldn't do it anymore, my legs wouldn't let me. I never felt good," Messi admitted.
Those comments, combined with his words about his father's death, will inevitably intensify discussion about when one of football's greatest careers will end.
No retirement announcement yet
For now, one distinction is crucial.
Messi has not announced his retirement.
He remains under contract with Inter Miami and has not officially ended his career with Argentina either. His emotional message therefore should not be interpreted as confirmation that he has already played his final match.
But his words leave little doubt that retirement is now on his mind.
After losing the man who stood beside him from Rosario to Barcelona, Paris, Miami, and the World Cup, Messi is facing a question he previously answered by continuing to play: how much football does he still have left?