Messi wrote that he may not play much longer

Lionel Messi posted a letter to his father on Wednesday, three days after Jorge Messi died in Rosario at 68. Jorge had been his agent as well as his father. In the post, Messi wrote that he does not know how to carry on, and that he has "serious doubts" about playing football much longer. He said Jorge had asked him to play this World Cup, then worsened days before it began. Argentina reached the final against Spain in New Jersey on 19 July and lost 1-0. Messi wrote that he wanted the trophy to take to his father and that his legs would not do it. He is 39, still under contract at Inter Miami, and has not announced a retirement.

People will read this as a retirement watch. It is a son saying the job only made sense because one person was at the other end of the phone. I am not going to pretend a social post is a decision. I also cannot pretend those sentences, from someone who spent twenty years refusing to narrate himself, are nothing. The World Cup final already had a private grief inside it. He said so after the Algeria game, then kept playing.

The only facts that settle this are a team sheet or a statement. Until one of those arrives, Inter Miami still have him on a contract and Argentina still have a captain who has just told the world he is not sure the work is possible. Watch whether he trains. That will be louder than another tribute.