„I don’t know what I will do without you, I don’t know how to live on. I was just playing football, and now I have serious doubts whether I will be able to continue doing it for much longer,“ wrote 39-year-old L. Messi in his message on social networks after his father, who was also his agent, died last week at the age of 68.
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Argentine media reported that J. Messi died on Friday in a hospital in Rosario.
„His constant presence nearby and the leadership carried out behind the scenes were essential factors supporting every step of Lionel,“ wrote the childhood club of the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, Newell’s Old Boys, on social networks at the time.
Former metal factory worker J. Messi was his son’s first coach in Argentina and his only companion when he moved to Barcelona as a child. Later, he became his son’s agent.
„My father helped me enormously. He is very critical of me. That encouraged me to constantly strive for more,“ L. Messi said in 2022 to DirecTV Sports.
In 2000, J. Messi left a stable job in Argentina, his wife, and three other children to move to Spain with his 13-year-old son.
„When we arrived in Barcelona, I would lock myself in my room and cry alone, and my father did the same – either out of my sight or thinking I didn’t see. We pretended everything was fine, although we were actually going through a difficult time,“ L. Messi later recounted.
„When it was hard, my father even asked what I wanted to do – whether to continue or go back home. I wanted to continue, so he stayed with me,“ said the football legend.
Later, J. Messi finalized his son’s first contract with the Barcelona club, becoming his agent and sole representative in Spain, and later also at Paris Saint-Germain and in Miami.
As a private person, J. Messi rarely gave interviews, but he spoke publicly several times about the unbreakable bond with his son.
„I think the day Leo stops playing, my dream will collapse and I will no longer watch football,“ he said in 2013 to the German magazine Kicker.
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