Lionel Messi rejoined Inter Miami CF on Wednesday following the passing of his father, Jorge Messi, for its Leagues Cup game against Club Leon on the bench at Nu Stadium.
Jorge Messi died Saturday at a hospital in the central Argentina city of Rosario. He was 68.
Messi, who was named to the substitute’s bench in his return, previously traveled by plane on Saturday to Rosario, where reports in Argentina said he attended a private memorial service.
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Messi recently paid tribute to his father in an Instagram post, opening up about the difficulty of playing through the World Cup — where Argentina lost to Spain in the final — while his father battled through an unspecified illness.
“You asked me to play in this last World Cup so many times and just before it started was when you were at your worst,” Messi’s post said. “It was the first time you were not at a tournament, but mum told me you would get better and you would be able to travel. I told you we would reach the final so you could. When each game finished, I waited for and then missed your messages. That was when I realized how bad the situation was. But I did not stop thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time and for you to be able to see a game if we reached the final.
“But you could not be there. I wanted to win it to bring it home and show you [the World Cup] again. I couldn’t, my legs had nothing left to give. I tried, but I couldn’t. You thought we had lost the final on penalties. We couldn’t speak about anything that had happened. I couldn’t enjoy anything. We were not champions in the end, but you don’t know how much we enjoyed every game. You were right once again: I had to be there and play at the World Cup.”
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Inter Miami manager Guillermo Hoyos said the news of Jorge’s passing has been “a source of great pain” inside the club locker room as the team navigates this difficult moment.
“Regarding Leo, we know what happened, and it is a huge shame, a source of great pain, and we have really felt that impact,” Hoyos said Tuesday. “It has been very hard. Often, there are no words for it. When you go through such a difficult experience, it is hard to recover, yet it is something we all face. In a way, we never truly learn from it because the pain is so intense.”
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When asked on Tuesday, Hoyos did not specify when Messi would rejoin Inter Miami.
Now, the Inter Miami captain will watch kickoff from the bench for the first time as the club attempts to qualify to the knockout round of the Leagues Cup tournament. Miami won its first game against Atletico San Luis, but lost on Saturday to Monterrey with Messi away at the memorial for his father.
