Lionel Messi bids farewell to father who guided his glittering career

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Lionel Messi said goodbye to his father, Jorge Messi, on Sunday (Aug 9) after the global football star's father passed away from cancer at the age of 68. The 39-year-old Messi arrived in Argentina on a private flight from Miami with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their children. A somber ceremony was held at the El Prado cemetery in the town of Perez, adjacent to Rosario, where handwritten messages from fans and a floral wreath adorned the gates. Messi's teammates rallied around their captain following the news of his father's death.

Jorge Messi, a metalworker from Rosario, 340 km north of Buenos Aires, was the father who guided his son's football career from the beginning. He was his first coach, leaving everything behind to accompany Lionel to Spain when the young prodigy was just four years old. Jorge also introduced Messi to the game on local vacant lots and eventually became the agent who negotiated contracts for the football star, from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Miami.

Messages of sympathy poured in from the football world and the Argentine Football Association ordered a minute's silence before matches and black armbands at games for the week.