Lionel Messi rejoined Inter Miami on Wednesday, taking a spot on the substitutes’ bench for the club’s Leagues Cup match against Club Leon at Chase Stadium, days after the death of his father, Jorge Messi.
Jorge Messi died Saturday at a hospital in Rosario, Argentina, at age 68. Reports differed slightly on the timeline of the days that followed. One account said Messi flew to Rosario on Saturday and attended a private memorial service there, while another said he attended his father’s funeral near Rosario on Sunday before flying back to Miami on Tuesday night. The discrepancy in the exact dates had not been resolved across the differing reports.
It marked the first time Messi, Inter Miami’s captain, watched a match kickoff from the bench rather than the starting lineup since his return.
What We Know So Far
Messi had shared an emotional tribute to his father on Instagram earlier in the week, reflecting on how difficult it was to play through this summer’s World Cup, where Argentina lost to Spain in the final, while his father battled an unspecified illness. In the post, Messi wrote about waiting for messages from his father after each match and growing increasingly worried as they stopped arriving, and described trying to advance as far as possible in the tournament in hopes his father could still see a game. He also expressed uncertainty about his future in the sport. “I don’t know what I’ll do without you, I don’t know how to go on,” Messi wrote.
Inter Miami coach Guillermo Hoyos said Tuesday that news of Jorge Messi’s death had deeply affected the team, describing it as a source of great pain that the locker room had genuinely felt. Hoyos did not specify at the time when Messi would rejoin the squad, though Messi made himself available in time for Wednesday’s match.
Inter Miami entered the match needing a win against Leon, combined with other results going their way, to advance to the knockout stage of the Leagues Cup, a tournament featuring clubs from Major League Soccer and Mexico’s Liga MX. The club had opened the group stage with a win over Atletico San Luis before losing 2-1 to Monterrey while Messi was away attending his father’s memorial.
For Wednesday’s match, Hoyos started Argentine midfielder Rodrigo De Paul and Brazilian midfielder Casemiro, while forward Luis Suarez was unavailable due to suspension and forward German Berterame was out recovering from a concussion.
What Authorities Are Saying
Hoyos said the pain of losing a parent is something everyone eventually faces but that it remains difficult to fully process even when it is a shared human experience. He said there are often no adequate words for that kind of loss, adding that the team had felt the weight of what Messi was going through.
Why This Matters
Messi’s decision to rejoin the squad just days after his father’s death, even in a bench role rather than as a starter, reflects both the emotional difficulty of the moment and the competitive stakes facing Inter Miami, which needed a positive result to keep its Leagues Cup campaign alive. His father served not only as a parent but as his longtime agent and a central figure throughout his career, making the loss especially significant for a player who has spoken publicly about how closely the two remained involved in every stage of his professional life.
Messi’s public comments about uncertainty over his soccer future, raised directly in his tribute post earlier in the week, add another layer of significance to his return, since any indication of a shortened timeline for his career carries major implications for Inter Miami and the broader landscape of North American soccer given his stature in the sport.
What Happens Next
Inter Miami’s results Wednesday will determine whether the club advances to the Leagues Cup knockout stage, with the team needing both a win over Leon and favorable results elsewhere in the group. Messi’s role going forward, including whether he returns to the starting lineup for subsequent matches, remains unclear given Hoyos’s earlier comments that no firm timetable had been set for his reintegration.
Messi’s broader comments about his soccer future are likely to remain a significant storyline regardless of Wednesday’s outcome, given the uncertainty he expressed in his tribute to his father just days before returning to the bench.
Reporting drawn from ESPN and France 24, citing Inter Miami coach Guillermo Hoyos and Lionel Messi’s Instagram tribute to his father.
