Lionel Messi’s World Cup tears have reportedly been linked to his father Jorge’s severe medical condition.
Messi is very close to his 68-year-old father, who manages his son’s multimillion-dollar business off the pitch and serves as his agent and de facto business manager.
However, the Argentine press disclosed information about Jorge’s severe illness in the hours following Messi’s tears.
The story was revealed on Tuesday night when Messi cried on the Kansas City field right after he scored his first-ever World Cup hat-trick to secure a 3-0 victory over Algeria.
Messi Opens Up On His Tears
Opening up on the reason for his emotions to the media postgame, he said: “No, honestly it’s something completely unrelated to sports. It’s been a few difficult days, complicated.”
A few hours later, in an interview with Radio Mitre as reported by the Daily Mail, one of the most popular stations in the nation, journalist Eduardo Feinmann described the reason for the emotion.
“This has to do with his father. His father is not in good health,” he said. “For quite some time now, several months, since last year.
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“And this week there were some situations that slightly worsened his health, and Messi is going through this internal struggle. In other words, like any human being.”
According to reports, Jorge was hospitalised after experiencing a “medical episode” at home in January of this year.
Jorge is claimed to have had neurological and cardiovascular testing in the aftermath, but the family has not yet disclosed an official diagnosis and has kept Jorge’s condition out of the public eye.
