Lionel Messi expressed uncertainty about his future in football as he shared a heartfelt tribute after the death of his father, Jorge Messi.

Jorge, who was 68 years old, passed away last week after a prolonged illness. He had been his son's agent since Lionel was 14, witnessing his rise to become one of the sport's all-time greats.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without you," Messi wrote on social media. "I don't know how to carry on. I used to just play football, and now I'm really not sure if I'll carry on doing it for much longer.

"You were by my side from the very beginning. We were so close to the end. Why didn't you hang in there just a little longer so we could finish this together?"

Messi captained Argentina to a World Cup victory in 2022 and led the team to the 2026 World Cup final, which they lost 1-0 to Spain, before returning to his club side Inter Miami.

After Jorge's passing, Messi returned home to his family in Rosario, Argentina. A private funeral took place on Sunday at a cemetery in the town of Perez, on the outskirts of Rosario.

"Dad, I still can't believe you're gone," Messi continued. "It hasn't sunk in, or rather, I don't want it to. It's so hard for me to imagine that I'll never see you again, that we'll never talk again. I know you were suffering and that this is for the best, but you left too soon. We still had so much left to enjoy together."

During the World Cup, Messi cried after scoring the opening goal in Argentina's 3-0 victory over Algeria, citing a reason that was "completely unrelated to football." A statement from his family later revealed that Jorge was dealing with a "health-related situation."

Messi added: "You kept asking me to play in one last World Cup, and just days before it started, that's when you took a turn for the worse. It was the first time you weren't going to be at a tournament, but Mom kept telling me you'd get better and that you'd be well enough to travel. I kept telling you that we were going to make it to the final so you could come along.

"Every time a game ended, I'd wait for and miss your message. That's when I realised how bad the situation was. Even so, I couldn't stop thinking about going as far as possible, to give you time to watch a game. We made it to the final, and you couldn't be there.

"I wanted to win it so I could bring the trophy to you and show you a new one. I couldn't, my legs had nothing left. This time I tried to push past my physical limits, but I couldn't. I never managed to feel right."

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