"What am I going to do when he stops playing?" Messi’s mother recalls late father's heartbreaking words
Retirement and loss collide as Messi’s mother recalls Jorge’s haunting question
Lionel Messi’s decision to retire from international football was always going to be an emotional moment for his family.
But for his mother, Celia Cuccittini, the timing has made it even more difficult.
Just hours after Messi announced that he was bringing the curtain down on his Argentina career, Celia revealed that the entire family has been struggling to come to terms with the decision.
“I’m still crying. Even though we already knew, the whole family is very sad, but the important thing is that he is happy,” Celia said in a message shared with Argentine television programme Intrusos on America TV.
But it was what she said next that made the moment even more emotional.
Celia recalled something her late husband, Jorge Messi, used to say whenever he thought about the day Lionel would eventually stop playing.
“The father always used to say, ‘What am I going to do when he doesn’t play anymore?’ And it all happened together. Incredible,” she said.
Those words carry even more weight now.
Jorge Messi died on August 8 at the age of 68 following a long illness. He had been far more than just Messi’s father throughout his extraordinary career. He was also his longtime agent and one of the most important figures behind his journey from Rosario to Barcelona and eventually to the very top of world football.
And just 23 days after Jorge’s death, Messi announced that his own journey with Argentina had come to an end.
Interestingly, Messi had made the decision even before losing his father.
The 39 year old revealed that he originally wrote his retirement message on July 21, just two days after Argentina lost 1 to 0 to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final.
Although Argentina fell short in the final, it was still an incredible campaign for 39-year-old Messi, who once again carried his nation on his shoulders with eight goals and four assists. It was one of the greatest individual World Cup campaigns we have ever seen.
Anyway, this is heartbreaking news for Messi fans around the world.
